MedWatcher, the new healthcare platform, offers patients in Germany a "digital home" where they can obtain information about their illnesses and drug treatments. A central aspect of the platform is the collaboration with scientific institutions in order to structure patient feedback and make it scientifically usable for experts and life science companies. Particular attention is being paid to patient-reported outcomes (PROs), which are increasingly being used to evaluate the benefits of a therapy from the patient's perspective. While PROs are already standard in clinical studies, MedWatcher also promotes their use in the everyday care context, i.e. outside of studies.
Since August 2023, MedWatcher has been cooperating with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). The EORTC is a prominent organization in oncological research in Europe with around 3,400 members from over 900 different European institutions. The aim of the collaboration is to combine patient feedback with oncological research, in particular through validated questionnaires developed by the organization and completed by patients. MedWatcher makes the EORTC's standardized quality of life questionnaires accessible to all cancer patients, providing valuable insights into patient care "in the real world" and supporting cancer research. Initially, the computerized adaptive testing version of the QLQ-C30 quality of life questionnaire will be released, followed by disease-specific questionnaires for different cancer types. The platform aims to become the largest patient platform for improved patient knowledge, support and real world data.
