Buddyhuis app is live

Finding love through apps such as Tinder, Happn or Grinder is now just as normal as meeting someone in a pub. During the first wave of COVID19, Femke Riel, a buddy and founder of Buddyhuis, thought: surely this should also be possible for people going through the same thing — or rather, for buddies. Digital contact with other people affected by cancer, whenever you need it and potentially without meeting in person, means you never have to face it alone.

The Digital Buddyhuis

Buddyhuis and Data Science Lab developed the app together. It lets buddies connect digitally and uses intelligent matchmaking to pair them. “After a post on LinkedIn calling for a digital buddy house, we immediately decided, through our Data For Good label, to develop an app with digital matchmaking alongside Buddyhuis. We want to contribute to society and believe everyone deserves a buddy,” says Boudewijn Gresnigt, CCO at Data Science Lab. “The app gives everyone, including patients who are too ill to leave home, a way to reduce social isolation. Patients can now decide for themselves when they want contact with a buddy,” says Riel. The Digital Buddyhuis consists of an app (Apple Store & Google Play Store) for secure buddy-to-buddy chat and intelligent matchmaking.

Intelligent matchmaking

Previously, buddies were paired manually, which took a lot of time. “That process has been replaced by intelligent matchmaking. A new buddy downloads the app and fills in the registration form. This automatically generates several potential buddy matches, one of which is approved by someone from the Buddyhuis foundation,” says Gresnigt. “Human oversight remains important, so a specialist matchmaker checks whether the buddies have enough in common. That makes it less likely, for example, that a young breast cancer patient who wants children will be paired with an older buddy who does not,” says Riel.

500 buddies

There are currently more than 500 buddy registrations from the pilot group of breast cancer patients and former patients at Sint Antoniusziekenhuis in Utrecht. Everything in the app is designed to scale, and we hope to add new patient groups as soon as possible. Buddyhuis wants this form of psychosocial care to be available nationwide to everyone who needs it. We are also busy adding content to the app’s information platform, where patients can find reliable information tailored to their personal situation.

About Buddyhuis

Buddyhuis is an initiative by Femke Riel and Annemiek Doeksen. Femke Riel was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, and Annemiek Doeksen was her oncology surgeon. Riel: “When you’re told you have breast cancer, your world falls apart for a moment. While I was sitting in the waiting room, a very cheerful woman came in wearing a little cap, and I knew she had it too.” That gave Riel a lot of courage, and she asked Doeksen whether she could be matched with the cheerful woman. That first buddy match marked the beginning of Buddyhuis. Together, they draw on their experiences from the patient and medical perspectives to make it easy for anyone to find a buddy. As normal as finding a new romantic partner.