need help managing a disease? there's an app for that

when shaneel pathak was caring for his late wife, heing taing, who was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in 2013, he routinely toted a binder stuffed with all her data — notebooks, test results, medications, cds of diagnostic images, names of doctors and specialists — from one appointment to another. with each new visit, he and taing recounted her condition, test results and responses to treatment over and over. plus, while researching her cancer, he was never sure if the information and resources he found on the internet were credible. he kept thinking there had to be a better way.

app helps share information about home care with doctors

during the five years that it took to get the platform, initially called zoeinsights and now zamplo , up and running, taing provided input based on her own experiences managing her cancer. she also used aspects of the design to be actively involved in her treatment.

the more informed you are, the more you can advocate for yourself

zamplo includes a journal to record symptoms, medications and supplements and can be customized to any disease. supplied

examples of where the zamplo platform is currently in use, says pathak, include a mental health study by the radical mental health doula program at the university of calgary; as wearable and patient-centred digital devices for health monitoring by respiratory disease patients at the university of alberta; by the farncombe family digestive health research institute at mcmaster university studying inflammatory bowel disease; and for electronic patient reporting of symptoms during outpatient radiotherapy treatment at toronto’s university health network.

zamplo for metastatic breast cancer

in 2021, pathak collaborated with dr. nancy nixon, oncologist and researcher at calgary’s tom baker cancer centre and assistant professor at the university of calgary, who configured the platform to use for metastatic breast cancer patients using patient advisors to create the relevant features. these patients are able to securely track and analyze their health information, share it with their caregivers, upload photos and files from their phone to the app, record a list questions to take to appointments, connect with others around the world, search for clinical trials, even download data from their wearable tech.