Integrative oncology in action
Launched on the 30th of June!
The Oncio app is the first free app available to adults affected by cancer that empowers you to practically put integrative oncology tools and strategies into action. It is designed to be used by people at any point in their cancer care pathway - from diagnosis through active treatment and survivorship to living well with cancer - as well as their carers.
The app content and functionality has been and will continue to be co-developed with the community of people impacted by cancer through lived experience or a carer role. Our aim is to empower you with an evidence-informed toolkit that is practical and easy to use and cuts through the noise of conflicting information of variable quality and relevance to you.
The Oncio app has been created by the Oncio CIC, co-founded by Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel and Dr Penny Kechagioglou.
Empowering you to take action with support every step of the way
The app has three main screens:
PROGRAMS
This screen offers guided programs with daily actions aimed at supporting lifestyle change and creating a broad toolkit for self-management, from nutrition and movement to psycho-emotional wellbeing and more.
We are launching with five programs, covering yoga, mindfulness, EFT and prehabilitation (exercise to support preparation for treatment). Please watch out for more content to come in the months ahead!
EXPLORE
The Explore screen offers articles, audio and video resources to expand your knowledge and provide practical support:
General support hub - general information on integrative oncology (IO) and key modalities/therapies
Symptom relief hub - evidence- and guideline-informed support for targeting specific symptoms with non-pharmacological interventions, e.g. pain relief and menopause symptoms
Charity group sessions and events - both in-person and online for community support
Nutritious and delicious recipes donated by wonderful chefs
HOME
Using the Home screen allows you to track progress on your chosen program and connect health apps and wearable devices to Oncio to help keep key health and wellbeing metrics in one place. This information is shared only with Oncio to help us see how well the resources are supporting your sleep, activity and overall physiological resilience as measured by HRV (heart rate variability).
Home also offers an opportunity for self-evaluation of symptom scores and quality of life, which plays a crucial role in app evaluation and helps us build the evidence base for digital health support in cancer care. This evaluation is essential for app funding and development.
The initial app version which launched at the end of June is just the beginning.
We will be regularly updating the app with new programs, recipes, charity events, workshops, articles, and video and audio resources, offering our users fresh content to explore. We plan to work on a specific carer corner for those of you supporting people affected by cancer, as well as looking at engaging with underserved communities and language translations over the coming 12-24 months.
We are also engaging with healthcare providers across the public and private sectors, offering our professional portal to help connect the dots in cancer care.
What is integrative oncology?
Integrative oncology is a person-centred branch of healthcare that aims to rationally synthesise the best of conventional medicine with evidence-informed nutrition and lifestyle medicine, psycho-emotional wellbeing and complementary medicine to support better quality of life and whole person resilience, minimise the side effects of treatment and improve clinical outcomes.
The Oncio app is designed to help you get high-quality, expert-led integrative oncology information on how to manage the challenges of cancer treatment and recovery and to support you in putting this into action.
Our multidisciplinary professional panel and experienced content contributors offer extensive expertise in their fields to ensure that the content is evidence-informed, practical and supportive of the care you are receiving from your medical provider. Our lived experience panel keeps us firmly grounded in what is important to people affected by cancer, and the app feedback function helps us create content that serves our community and respond to requested changes. We are actively seeking applications from people from ethnic minority groups and backgrounds and LGBTQIA+ communities to increase representation and provide specific resources. If you are interested in improving access to integrative oncology in your community, please contact us.
Events and Media
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Oncio app poster presentation at the SIO 2023 conference
Co-creation of an integrative oncology app - building together from lived experience to address unmet support needs
September 2023
Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel will present our team’s poster at the SIO 20th International Conference in Canada, on the initial results of the Oncio survey of people with lived experience, which clearly highlight unmet needs that our app aims to address.
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Oncio app poster presentation at WCIMH 2023 congress
Co-creation of an integrative oncology app - empowerment and engagement in practice
September 2023
Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel will present our team’s poster on the Oncio app at the 2nd World Congress for Integrative Medicine and Health in Rome. This poster presentation will focus on the process of co-developing the app with our expert and lived experience panels and beta-testers and refining the initial version of the app for launch.
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Dr. Penny Kechagioglou & Dr. Nina Fuller-Shavel explain the benefits of Integrative Oncology in helping employees through their cancer journey.
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Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel and Dr Penny Kechagioglou launch integrative oncology app.
Read the article here