The Digital Buddy House

When you hear you have cancer, your world is turned upside down. Such was the case with Femke Riel. As she sat tensely in the waiting room of St. Antonius Hospital a few days after her diagnosis for the results of the MRI scan, there sat Hester, “a radiant woman wearing a cap. ‘She had such a positive outlook, but I knew right away: she has it, too.’ Oncologic surgeon Dr. Doeksen put the ladies in touch, and so they became buddies for each other during the treatment process and beyond. That meeting was the beginning of the establishment of the Buddy House, for support after the diagnosis of (breast) cancer.

Core values

We believe that making the Buddy House digital has a great contribution in facilitating more social (fellow sufferers) contact. With this we try to offer everyone, including sicker patients who are housebound, an opportunity to reduce the social isolation that can be caused by the disease, and at this time exacerbated by the COVID-19 measures. Patients who sign up at the Buddy House are in control: they themselves choose a Buddy on pre-specified matching criteria (e.g., age, type of illness or treatment, children), and determine how they complete contact with their Buddy. Some have one-time contact, others call daily or meet physically. Contact with (one or more) Buddies can make the patient feel not alone, feel supported, or to keep a positive outlook on life despite the illness.

Purpose and need

In the current COVID-19 era, it was not possible to meet physically. However, many Buddies and patients do indicate a great need for an alternative way to connect and have contact with Buddies. Among the Buddies, feedback was also requested following some Webinars that were organized. Not only did the number of participants per Webinar increase significantly each time, all participants without exception indicated in their feedback that the focus on digital meetings was greatly appreciated and responsive to their current questions and needs. In addition, a recent study among 1051 (ex) breast cancer patients, conducted from the UMC Utrecht in the Utrecht region, showed that (ex) breast cancer patients on average scored significantly worse on emotional and social functioning during the COVID-19 period, when compared to their scores before COVID-19. Also, more patients were depressed. Also, this study found that nearly half of the patients experienced feelings of loneliness. To answer the needs of the Buddies, and to improve the psychosocial well-being of (ex) cancer patients, together we created the Buddy House digital.

The Digital Buddy House

The Buddy House and Data Science Lab. have joined forces to develop a Buddy House app in which Buddies can connect with each other digitally, as well as to simplify the process of making a buddy match and make the project scalable to other patient groups within different hospitals. The desire of the Buddy House is for this form of care to become available nationwide to anyone who needs it. This way, Buddies can still connect with each other. The Digital Buddy House consists of an App (Apple Store & Google Play Store) and website, for digital buddy-to-buddy contact, intelligent match-making and an information platform.

Digital buddy-to-buddy contact

New users can sign up through the app with only the most necessary personal information and a few questions. As a Buddy, you choose what information is shared with other Buddies. Through the platform, Buddies always have one-on-one (chat) contact, but a user can have separate conversations with several Buddies. The chat feature is custom-built and does not use existing chat services, such as WhatsApp. It is very important that messages sent are secure and can only be read by the sender and receiver. In doing so, all relevant (privacy) laws will be complied with. In principle, if a user of the platform wants to unsubscribe, all data will be removed from the systems. The user does have the option to help the Buddy House and then gives permission to keep the data anonymized.

Intelligent Match-making

In the past, Buddies were still matched by hand. This was done through a questionnaire that Buddies fill out upon registration. This took a lot of time. This process has been replaced by translating a number of matching rules into a ‘smart’ digital alternative. With such a script, a new user can be matched to a suitable Buddy within a few seconds, which would allow the user to make contact immediately. The user specifies the ‘characteristics’ on which the match should be made.

Longer term

By making the Buddy House digital, we aim to make fellow-sufferer contact even more accessible. We expect that the Digital Buddy House can ultimately also be cost-saving for health care. On the one hand because patients may be able to receive psychosocial support at an earlier stage, thus preventing psychological problems in the longer term. On the other hand, because we expect that patients will have less need for extra support in the form of (telephone) contact with e.g. the general practitioner, physiotherapist or specialist.

Features of the App

• Registration/application form
• Intelligent matchmaking
• Login and functionality to reset password
• Chat functionality
• Group chat functionality
• View/edit profile pages of yourself and buddies
• Management portal (secure) to approve buddies
• Push notifications on new posts
• Adding Buddies via QR code
• Ability to request removal of match
• Continuous development in compliance with all privacy laws and regulations (Privacy by Design)

https://www.buddyhuis.nl/