Most patients do not lack information. They lack information they can trust, understand and find again at three in the morning when a side effect starts, and the clinic is closed.
OncoEd is building a small set of tools to address exactly that. This article describes what they are, what they are for, and where the project stands with each of them.
A digital learning platform
At the centre of OncoEd is a web-based platform, usable on a phone, tablet or computer, that brings the project’s educational content together in one place. Content is organised around the patient journey – diagnosis and orientation, active treatment, side effects and support, and life after treatment – so that people can find what is relevant to where they are now, rather than reading everything at once.
The platform will also offer personalised learning pathways: a patient starting chemotherapy and a patient six months after surgery will be shown different material first.
A mobile app with reminders and tracking
Alongside the platform, OncoEd is developing a mobile application for the practical, day-to-day side of treatment. The planned features include:
- medication and appointment reminders;
- treatment tracking, so that patients and carers can see what has been done and what comes next;
- symptom monitoring, so that side effects can be noted as they happen and shared with the care team;
- telehealth functions that make it easier to stay in contact with healthcare professionals between visits.
Treatment adherence – taking medicines as prescribed, attending appointments, reporting problems early – is one of the outcomes OncoEd is trying to improve, and the app is the main tool for that.
An AI-supported chatbot
Many patient questions are the same questions, asked many times: ‘Can I eat this?’, ‘Is this side effect normal?’, ‘What should I bring to my first radiotherapy session?’ OncoEd is developing an AI-supported chatbot, integrated into the platform, that can answer common questions immediately, drawing on the project’s own reviewed content.
It is worth being clear about what the chatbot is not. It is not a doctor, and it is not designed to give individual medical advice. Its purpose is to make reliable general information available at any hour, and to point people towards their own care team when a question needs one.
Interactive kiosks in hospitals
Not everyone who needs information has a smartphone, or feels at ease using one. OncoEd will install a pilot interactive kiosk in a partner hospital, giving patients and carers access to the same educational content during a hospital visit, while they wait, without needing an account or a device of their own. The pilot will show whether kiosks are a useful complement to the digital tools, and how they might be extended.
Videos, infographics and animations
The educational content itself is being produced in formats meant to be used rather than only read: ten video lessons, ten interactive infographics and animation-based material designed for people with limited literacy or who are finding it hard to concentrate. Topics include how treatments work, managing side effects, nutrition during and after treatment, psychosocial wellbeing, caregiving, and how to tell reliable health information from misinformation online.
All of this content will be integrated into the platform, the app and the kiosk, so that the same material is available wherever a patient happens to be.
In five languages, and accessible by design
Everything OncoEd produces will be available in five languages, reviewed for plain language and cultural fit by the project’s palliative care partner, so that it reads naturally rather than like a translation.
The digital tools are being built to the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standard, with text-to-speech, high-contrast modes, screen reader compatibility, subtitles, audio description and sign language options. Patient data will be handled under GDPR, with secure authentication and encryption.
Built with patients, not only for them
Before anything is released widely, the tools will be piloted with patients, carers and healthcare professionals in a working hospital setting, and revised on the basis of what they say. This is a deliberate part of the plan, not an afterthought: a tool that patients do not use, or cannot use, has no value however well it was designed.
All OncoEd materials are educational. They do not replace advice from a patient’s own medical team.
Follow the series
Starting on 7 September, OncoEd will publish a new piece of patient education every two weeks, following the patient journey from diagnosis through treatment, side effects and support, to life after treatment and advanced care. The first, ‘Cancer Care 101: Understanding Your Diagnosis and Treatment Journey’, is written for people who have recently been diagnosed and for their families.
Follow the project
Website: oncoed.org
LinkedIn: OncoEd
Funded by the European Union, Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in Adult Education. KA220-ADU-BF389AFE OncoED: Digital Health Literacy for Cancer Patients Across Europe · 2025–2027
