Andrea Kurz, Business Unit Director Oncology, MSD Ina Herzer, CEO, MSD, Winner: Dr. David Kiesl. Prim.a Priv.-Doz.in Dr.in Birgit Grünberger, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Philipp Jost

Winning project 2022/2023 “Heartfish-Uro-Oncology”

Integration of multimodal concepts and telemedical options of the ambulant setting in patient care.

Especially patients with cancer do not achieve the recommended level of physical activity. This results in therapy-related side effects such as fatigue, depression or lymphedema during cancer treatments. Regular physical activity can reduce cardiovascular events and thus improve patients’ quality of life during and after therapy.

“In our project, we want to support patients with their cancer therapy. The developed health app with targeted exercise programs aims to increase physical activity and health literacy among patients, prevents possible side effects, and increases willingness and adherence to therapy.” The goal here is to use the developed health app with targeted exercise programs to increase physical activity and health literacy among patients, thus preventing possible side effects and increasing willingness and adherence to therapy,” explains Dr. David Kiesl, an internist at the Ordensklinikum Linz and a sports medicine specialist at the Institute for Sports- and Health Medicine.

International guidelines also recommend daily exercise to increase quality of life. About 60% of the healthy population in Europe barely reach the activity level recommended by the WHO. With cancer, there is a further 60% decrease in activity. Health apps and peer support offer an excellent opportunity in current times to further promote physical activity in everyday life.

The developed “Heartfish App” provides oncological, psycho-oncological and dietary content. Activity programs can be individually adapted to patients in order to achieve and maintain the recommended activity level during therapy,” described Dr. David Kiesl in detail. He continues, “The 12-week course program represents a digitalized version of oncology education and supportive therapy care. In this way, multimodal concepts based on new telemedical possibilities can also be implemented in patient care.”

The project, led by specialist Dr. David Kiesl and in collaboration with Krebshilfe Oberösterreich, aims to improve the effectiveness of lifestyle therapy and provide innovative telemedical care for uro-oncologic patients with advanced cancer types. This enables the digital integration of oncological supportive concepts through an app called “Heartfish”, which provides patients with multimodal care and promotes their health literacy.

“Especially uro-oncological patients with advanced cancer type need stability and continuous medical care during ongoing therapy, also independent of clinical visits,” emphasizes Dr. Kiesl and further highlights, “It is an incredible pleasure for us to now be able to further implement our project with the support of MSD and thus improve and innovatively support care during cancer therapy.”

AT-NON-01500, Created October 2023