Eat, pray, love. The quest for life balance is about physical or mental resilience and a holistic connection to self-care. Eating a diet with plenty of fibre, appropriate exercise, water intake, quality sleep and enough rest. This comprehensive support is significant for cancer patients. That is pointed out by students of the Faculty of Arts of MU, Jesika Konečná and Anna Kolářová, who, together with other team members, are developing a new app called Time to Self-care.
Both initiators of the project study psychology and focus on self-care and prevention of chronic diseases. "Time to Self-care is a new app for oncologic patients. It is a tool that will help them feel better during and after treatment and take their health at least partially into their own hands," said Jesika Konečná and Anna Kolářová. It will be the first app of this type in the Czech Republic. "There hasn't been anything like this yet, which motivated us to create it. The most similar are various preventive oncology programmes, but these are not focused on specific support for a particular disease or follow-up care," added Kolářová.
The students drew inspiration for the app from their surroundings and family. I realise how important it is to care for yourself and your health. People should take responsibility for their health into their own hands and not rely on the healthcare system to save them and sort it out when the worst happens," said Konečná.
A team of researchers from the Faculty of Arts MU is developing BraveMind technology for phobia therapy, which will help people combat crippling fear of objects, places or situations.
Find out more (CZ)
The Start Your Business competition, in which Konečná and Kolářová succeeded, supports students in developing their entrepreneurship. The competition is organised by the MU Technology Transfer Office. By winning, participants turn an idea into an honest service or product. This year, 27 teams participated in the competition, with the announcement coming at the end of May. Four teams received financial support based on the evaluation of an expert committee. The Time to Self-care project was awarded CZK 70,000. From the Faculty of Arts, Jonáš Boroš, who studies Theory and History of Film and Audiovisual Culture, also participated in the competition. Boroš came seventh, and his project CLUBKA promoted the creation of a prepaid card, motivating visits to independent cinemas.
However, the students need additional financial resources to get the app off the ground. On that account, they have launched a voluntary collection on Donio. "By the end of this year, we still have to complete the administration and financial details, after which, together with the developer, we will launch the app," Konečná explained.
“Doctors often do everything they can, yet the healthcare system does not offer oncologic patients the amount of support and information they need.”
Jesika Konečná
co-author of the Time to Self-care app
The Time to Self-care project links the fields of psychological and oncological care. According to Konečná and Kolářová, doctors often do everything they can. Yet, the healthcare system does not offer oncologic patients the amount of support and information they need to fight the disease daily. Along with specialist medical help, it is also about the support of a psychologist, nutritional therapist or physiotherapist "A balanced diet with plenty of fibre or light training activities such as Pilates or yoga can greatly support the whole process of successful treatment. Unfortunately, many people don't know this. They may have this information but can't get the needed appointments because of long waiting times. This is where our app can help: it can offer specific information from experts, provide online consultations, and guide people in areas where they may feel unsure because they don't have enough information," Konečná explained.
The app will include, for example, updated recipes suitable for oncologic patients, schedules of exercise plans and a separate section dedicated to sleep. "Our app will help to learn the necessary sleep rituals and habits regarding food and physical activity. It will establish them as a routine that the patient will keep track of," Konečná noted.
The team partially plans to use artificial intelligence in the application development. " Individual AI tools could help redirect to websites in online consultations or the correct interpretation of medical reports, for example. These are incomprehensible to many people, but getting them right is crucial," Konečná added.
The guarantors of the student project are physicians Lenka Pavčíková and Iva Hrnčiříková from the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in Brno, as well as associate professor Iva Burešová from the Department of Psychology at Faculty of Arts MU. The first version of the Time to Self-care app will be created next year in a prototype version, after which the team will develop the app further. To ensure the content's high quality and the app's long-term sustainability, we expect it to be partly fee-based. However, our goal is for it to be fully covered by health insurance companies in the future, similar to other proven digital therapeutic tools. We believe that when the app proves its benefit to the health of patients and the healthcare system, it will become available to everyone, regardless of their financial means," added Konečná.
