We created Vinehealth® to empower people with cancer and represent the voice of patients in healthcare and drug development.

Our story

When Georgina and I met, we realised we shared a passion to improve quality of life with cancer. As an NHS doctor, I had seen that people living with cancer often feel isolated and unsupported by a complex healthcare system. Patients need a way to manage their care from home, easily access trusted information and make the most of the limited time with their doctor.

As a data scientist, Georgina understood the value of technology to meet these needs at patients’ fingertips and in the comfort of their own home.

Together, we created the Vinehealth® app to empower people with cancer to achieve their best possible quality of life; enabling them to track their symptoms, manage their medications and understand their care. We put cancer patients back in control of their treatment. 

With patient consent, VinehealthPRO® can also deliver the crucial data needed to represent the voice of patients in healthcare delivery and drug development. We enable clinicians and researchers to truly understand how patients are responding to treatment in order to transform the delivery of cancer services. 

Rayna Patel, Co-founder & CEO

 

Vinehealth is free to download from the Apple App store and Google Play store here, or you can learn more about the Vinehealth app here.

 

Founders

  • Rayna Patel

    Co-Founder & CEO
    NHS Medical Doctor & Vinehealth Caldicott Guardian

  • Georgina Kirby

    Co-Founder & CTO
    Health Technology Specialist & Vinehealth Senior Information Risk Officer

Our foundations

We built the Vinehealth® app because we realised the potential to support people living with cancer to better self-manage their care through the use of behavioural science principles and digital technology.

 

What is self-mangement?

Supported self-management (SSM) is crucial for cancer patients everywhere and is an important part of the NHS Long Term Long-term Plan’s commitment to personalised care across the healthcare system.

It means that health and care professionals use information provided by patients to better tailor their approaches to working with them, based on the person’s individual situation, needs and preferences, as well as taking account of any inequalities and accessibility barriers. It ensures that approaches such as health coaching, peer support, tracking of health and wellbeing and education are systematically put in place to help build knowledge, skills and confidence.

Supported self management and personalised care recognise that “what matters to someone” is not the same as “what’s the matter with someone”.

You can find out more about self-management here.

What is behavioural science?

Behavioural Science is the study of human behaviour. Behavioural science typically combines insights from a wide range of disciplines, including economics, psychology and anthropology, with a particular focus on understanding the factors that affect our decision-making processes.

Very often these insights show that we are all subject to systematic 'biases' in the way that we take decisions, that can prevent us from taking optimal decisions. For example, we have a limited budget of attention that we can allocate to different activities, and if we try and go beyond that limit, we will fail. By understanding these behavioural effects, applied behavioural scientists are able to design systems and processes which go with the grain of how we take decisions in practice.

These insights are built into the Vinehealth app, which 'nudges' its users to make better choices for themselves. They range from timely notifications to remind people living with cancer to take their medication at the right time; to summarising symptoms in ways that facilitate better and more structured conversations between clinicians and Vinehealth users.

As well as drawing on the existing behavioural science research base, Vinehealth will also add to this body of knowledge. The Vinehealth app does this by collecting data on the outcomes associated with different patterns of behaviour, and then using this to continually improve the support that it provides to its users.

Vinehealth’s patient advisors

At Vinehealth, we take feedback and ideas from our users very seriously, we want to ensure we are developing an app with features that will be beneficial to our users and that are intuitive and easy to use. In order for us to do this we regularly speak to our users in a variety of user research sessions to help us validate each feature and design in the app. Those users who continuously participate in user research and direct our design decisions, become one of our patient advisors.

 

Take a look at some of our patient advisors' stories, and find out why they take part in user research:

  • Jill, Bowel cancer patient

    "Vinehealth is a great app which I have been using since cycle 2 of my chemotherapy when I first came across the app.

    I was happy to participate in user research as I have found the app very useful myself and noticed a few things that could be made clearer from a user point of view."

  • Liz, Breast cancer patient

    "The Vinehealth app was a lifesaver when I first started my treatment. I really struggled to remember what drugs I needed to take, and when to take them. The app helped me set drug reminders, and keep on top of the side effects.

    I’ve enjoyed helping with research as it has given me purpose whilst going through my treatment..."

  • James, Bowel cancer

    "There are two things I like: meaningful data and helping people! So it seemed logical to want to assist the wonderful Serena and Anastasiia with usability testing of the Vinehealth app.

    Until its release I was recording ALL my daily health data and symptoms in a diary. The Vinehealth app now allows me to do this in real time digitally and to have the ability to communicate these records with my oncologist & healthcare team."

  • Marie, Bowel cancer

    "I started using the Vinehealth app back in January 2021 while on a 3 month chemo break to keep a track of my daily medication, temperature and affects that I was experiencing. Before using the app, I was keeping a daily journal on my phone.

    I provide user feedback to the team via DM and Zoom. As a user, I found this helpful, given that I'm using it everyday."

  • Aurora

    I learnt about Vinehealth right when I had finished my active treatment in September 2019.

    In my meeting with Jack, I literally bombarded him with my ideas – I just wanted Vinehealth to bring them to reality! Later on, I interacted with Anastasiia and Serena, and can only say that Vinehealth people are as considerate and nice as good is their product!

Become patient advisor

Clinical advisory board

 

Vinehealth® is supported by expert clinician advisors who guide us on the development of the Vinehealth app as well as our clinical products.

Their feedback is vital to ensuring that we develop the best possible solutions for patients and healthcare professionals.

Some of our advisors are:

  • Dr Liz O'Riordan
    Retired Consultant Breast Surgeon with breast cancer

  • Dr Michael Flynn
    Consultant Medical Oncologist, University College London Hospital

  • Prof. Geoff Hall
    Consultant Medical Oncologist, CCIO Leeds Teaching Hospitals and Professor of Digital Health and Cancer Medicine, University of Leeds

  • Dr Pauline Leonard
    Consultant Medical Oncologist, Co-Chair of NCRI’s Living With and Beyond Cancer work stream

  • Prof. Muntzer Mughal
    Clinical Lead for North Central London Cancer Alliance, Consultant General and Upper GI Surgeon, Honorary Clinical Professor, Division of Surgery & Interventional Science, University College London

  • Dr Michael Kosmin
    Consultant Clinical Oncologist, National Hospital for Neurology

  • Mr Prasanna Sooriakumaran
    Consultant Urological Surgeon at The Harley Street Clinic

  • Mr Hani Marcus
    Academic Consultant Neurosurgeon, National Hospital for Neurology