Cancers and COVID-19: digital initiatives of the French Cancer Centers

Initiatives to improve the quality of life of patients

Léon Bérard Center, Lyon: the teachers in adapted physical activity (APA) of the Léon Bérard Center challenge the patients of the Center inviting them to keep moving even when confined. Twice a week, they offer an exercise relayed on the Centre’s website and social networks, thereby keeping adapted physical activity and therapeutic education workshops at a distance thanks to remote monitoring.
See Facebook social networks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1881906495278131/
See Twitter social networks: https://twitter.com/CLCCLeonBerard

Antoine Lacassagne Center, Nice: at the Antoine Lacassagne Center, the sophrologist offers a mindfulness meditation video accessible on the Centre’s YouTube channel every week to offer psychological support to patients, their loved ones and more generally the general public.
See YouTube social networks https://youtu.be/_yzmpaf72UE

Unicancer and several cancer centers (Institut Godinot, Gustave Roussy, Institut Curie, Institut du cancer de Montpellier, Center Antoine Lacassagne, Center Jean Perrin, Center Eugène Marquis and Lorraine Institute of Oncology) have joined forces and support the launch of the “Bulle” application by myCharlotte. This free application is intended for cancer patients in order to help them manage the symptoms that confinement could worsen: risks linked to sedentary lifestyles and psychological pressure. The application offers more than 30 adapted activities: physical activity sessions (Pilates) and mind-body activity sessions (meditation, relaxation, yoga, etc.).
See site: https://bulle.mycharlotte.co

The use of teleconsultation

While the public authorities soften the provisions relating to tele-care and call for the use of digital tools in the exceptional context of combating the Covid-19 epidemic, certain Centers including the Jean Perrin Center, the Georges-François Leclerc Center , the Léon Bérard Center and the Lorraine Cancer Institute have set up teleconsultation solutions as soon as they are possible to prevent patients from potentially risky travel while maintaining contact between patients and doctors during the health crisis.

At the Center Georges-François Leclerc, Dijon, all of the establishment’s practitioners, who carried out consultations before the COVID-19 epidemic, are now making teleconsultations (surgeons, medical oncologists, radiotherapists, psychologists, social workers). …). This modality concerns almost all of the follow-up consultations and part of the immediate post-therapeutic consultations. More than 400 teleconsultations have been carried out since the start of the epidemic. See COVID-19 page of the site: https://www.cgfl.fr/covid-19/

Thus, in one week, between March 16 and 23, nearly 660 follow-up consultations with cancer patients and followed at the Léon Bérard Center, Lyon, were carried out by teleconsultation. A tour de force made possible thanks to a solution proposed by the GCS SARA (of which the Center Léon Bérard is founder) funded by the Regional Health Agency Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (ARS ARA), but also by a strong commitment from the service IT of the establishment, which in a few days, occupied 50 consultation rooms, and by the adaptation of the medical team of the Center. See press release: http://www.unicancer.fr/sites/default/files/2020-03-CP-covid-19-CLB.pdf

At the Lorraine Cancer Institute, Nancy, nearly 1,200 consultations were carried out, including around 600 in teleconsultation. The teleconsultation rate varies, depending on the needs, from 50% to more than 60% at the ICL. See press releases of March 26 and April 03, 2020 available here: http://www.icl-lorraine.fr/index.php/actualites/6-actualites/598-covid-19-l-icl-vous- informed

At the Jean Perrin Center, Clermont-Ferrand: See page COVID-19 on the site: http://cjp.fr/fr/actualites/179-precautions-covid-19

Real-time information for patients and staff

A mobile application to guide patients
Through its myCLB mobile application, the Léon Bérard Center also answers questions from its patients and provides them with a questionnaire to be completed twice a day to identify the possible appearance of new symptoms.
A special COVID-19 newsletter
The Curie Institute has created a special COVID-19 e-newsletter sent to deliver the latest information to subscribers who register via the website.
Dedicated news blog 
The François Baclesse Center has created the “Baclesse News” blog on which it notably distributes to patients and their loved ones the latest news from the Center as part of the fight against COVID-19.
Cf. Blog https://www.baclesse-news.fr/category/covid-19/
 
A scientific news section for hospital staff

The first Cancer Center in Europe, Gustave Roussy, has created the “Covid-19 News” section on its website, on which scientific news summaries related to COVID-19 are regularly published, produced and commented on by experts from the Center. The press relies on these scientifically validated selections.
See website https://www.gustaveroussy.fr/covid19news
 

Intranet space and HIS solutions used to interact with staff

At the François Baclesse Center, an email address dedicated to COVID-19 has been created internally to allow staff to ask their questions and thus feed the FAQ posted on the intranet site by providing a unique answer to all of these questions. The Teams tool will also be more widely deployed to facilitate the exchange of remote information between professionals and limit travel as much as possible.

The Claudius Regaud Institute has created a special Info coronavirus page on its intranet space to inform its staff in particular about the procedures, COVID-19 organization plan, childcare solutions, health instructions, telework assistance, useful numbers and put at their provision of all useful documentation such as forms and communication tools addressed to patients and visitors. This intranet space is completed and updated daily. The weekly management meeting is also broadcast in livestreaming and can be viewed on this Intranet page.