MIT Solve

Solution Overview & Team Lead Details

Solution name.

Cancer Com.

Provide a one-line summary of your solution.

Cancer Com. is a digital platform that connects cancer patients with the necessary resources and services to provide them with the best medical and social support.

What specific problem are you trying to solve?

According to the WHO, in 2020, there were 28,764 prevalent cancer cases with 11,589 new cases in Lebanon alone. Patients usually do as instructed by their oncologist, who focuses on treatment. Unless the patient is part of a cancer center, which is very expensive, their journey is only focused on taking chemotherapy without a holistic look into their needs nor a multidisciplinary approach to symptoms' management. Studies have shown that a multidisciplinary approach to treatment increased the quality of life and survival rates of cancer patients, which placed symptoms tracking and personalized multidisciplinary management applications under the spotlight. However, none of these applications target the MENA region, rendering its patients clueless of such support. Cancer is unfortunately still handled in Lebanon not just a diagnosis but a death sentence, and many patients have a difficult time finding the support that they need. With the current economic crisis, patients are barely able to find or afford their treatment, let alone seek mental and nutritional consults. Therefore, our solution is of great value, especially in the countries like Egypt and Lebanon with 160 and 166 cases by 100,000 people, respectively.

Elevator pitch

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What is your solution?

Cancer Com. aims to be the go to place for cancer patients and their family members. A platform that take a multidisciplinary look at the cancer community’s needs and ensures that no one goes through this journey alone.

The app will monitor the patients' holistic progress, creating a trackable dashboard for the medical staff and alerting them when needed. It will generate personalized symptoms' management tips from a multidisciplinary approach and have a reward system to encourage this lifestyle enhancement. Patients will also have access to a community that is going through something similar, and they can share their concerns and journey anonymously or publically based on their preference.

We aim to have the system AI powered, and the live chat to be the mind-set of an oncology nurse. However, this will depend on the funds and outsourced talent. Furthermore, we are aiming to have the platform as an app for easier communication and tracking.

Who does your solution serve? In what ways will the solution impact their lives?

We are aware that the cancer community is based on patients, family members, and survivors. Therefore, we want our solution to be accessible to all three.

However, at the core is the cancer patients, so this is where we are going to start. The persona that we are targeting:

A cancer patient, who

is 20-56 of age
Knows about their diagnosis
Has internet access (not always)
Is capable of using the phone
Wants to take charge of their own health and improve their lifestyle
Is actively looking for support and information
Wants to be part of a community/ connect with someone going through something similar

This solution will ensure that all patients have their needs well accounted for and that no one fights alone.

How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?

In September 2019 my mother passed away from breast cancer. It was a long, difficult, confusing journey that lasted 5 years. I felt that there are many gaps that should be filled. I entered the Millennium fellowship (MCN), as an undergrad, to get the proper training on starting an initiative with patients at the center.

In September 2020, I launched the Cancer Com. initative to fill the gaps in the cancer community through youth and their network. Since I'm from a biology and psychology background, I gathered a team from the health sector, and we started raising awareness on all cancer types on our platform. Shortly after, we started offering services and awareness webinars in collaboration with prestigious health entities, and we work in close contact with the cancer NGOs.

When the idea of the app was conceived, I joined a capacity building program (UN- Global compact Network Lebanon Brain Lab) and shortly after we entered an incubator (LAU Spark) to learn how to refine the project to become viable and sustainable. Right now, we're part of an accelerator (Bloom ACSI 2) to transform the concept into a prototype.

I believe that my background allows me to formalize the solution in a biopsychosocial model. My experience with this disease allows me to understand the patients, and my direct contact with them everyday through the initiative's work gives me an even better perspective.

Since we started as an initiative, my team is volunteer based. Right now, Cancer Com. has 20 volunteers that are passionate about changing the cancer community. They come from diverse backgrounds (Medicine, nursing, psychology, nutrition, and physiotherapy) with 2 cancer survivors on board leading the forefront of patient-interaction.

What steps have you taken to understand the needs of the population you want to serve?

On January 18, 2021, we collaborated with my university (Lebanese American University) to offer free online nutritional consultations virtually to cancer patients and survivors. The feedback was very rewarding.

In May 2021, we collaborated with Rizik Hospital in a health fair where patients entered a virtual room and had a representative from every discipline. They shared a symptom they're facing and received advice on managing it from a nutritional perspective, a pharmaceutical perspective, and a nursing perspective. Something had never been done before. The, I was contacted by a physiotherapist that has her own clinic, supporting cancer patients' rehabilitation. She informed me about how difficult her job is because no pre-rehabilitation is implemented and because she doesn't know the recovering capacity of the patients. This is where the idea of a multidisciplinary app was born.

When I shared it with the patients, they were happy by the proposed support, but mentioned that it would be nice to communicate with other patients and see survivors who finished their treatment. This was a trend in answers, so we decided that community building should be a key in what we will be offering. In fact, this is where the prototype will start.

Which aspects of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Improving healthcare access and health outcomes; and reducing and ultimately eliminating health disparities (Health)

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Concept: An idea being explored for its feasibility to build a product, service, or business model based on that idea.

In what city, town, or region is your solution team located?

Beirut, Lebanon

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Sara El Koussa