Tag: 24/10/25

Categories : Cancer IT in HealthcareTags :

Altron HealthTech Set to Pilot South Africa’s First Oncology Companion App

On By ModernMedia

ThriveLink to connect patients, doctors, caregivers, and medical schemes in a seamless digital platform

The last thing someone dealing with a life-threatening disease wants is the pain of endless administrative paperwork and confusion that arises when aspects of their care are not easily coordinated. Altron HealthTech is set to pilot a solution designed to minimise these burdens by integrating various aspects of care management into one solution.   

The company announced today that it will soon begin piloting ThriveLink, South Africa’s first platform to connect patients, doctors, caregivers, and medical schemes in one integrated digital space. The oncology companion app is designed to help cancer patients flourish during a trying time by providing seamless care coordination, access to key information and educational content and removal of administrative obstacles. 

“We’ve built this tool with the ultimate goal of making life easier for cancer patients to be empowered throughout managing their treatment journey,” says Altron HealthTech MD Leslie Moodley. “They’ll receive appointment tracking, medication reminders, and secure communication with their care team – all customised for their unique treatment plan in one digital space – so they can focus on what matters most: their health and wellbeing.” 

Addressing a growing crisis

The development team was inspired to create ThriveLink after frontline agents logged an alarming increase in cancer diagnoses. Cancer cases in South Africa are projected to nearly double from 62 000 in 2019 to 121 000 nationally by 2030 based on data compiled by the SA Journal of Oncology, driven by an aging population and increased lifestyle risks. 

“We have insight into anonymised and aggregated data, and were shocked at the increase in cancer volumes,” says Moodley. “We realised there was value in developing a tool that could span the entire healthcare value chain and all the various touchpoints, to solve for a very real issue. This insight sparked a critical question: how can we make it easier for oncologists, our key stakeholders, to focus on what matters most – patient care? 

ThriveLink brings together data from specialists, medical aids, pharmacies, and other relevant sources to coordinate care to connect healthcare providers. Beyond appointment tracking and medication reminders, the app offers educational content, emotional support tools, and secure communication channels. 

“The solution enables these data points to collaborate in a technical sense to coordinate care,” explains Moodley. “Our response was to build a technology-driven platform that not only streamlines authorisations and treatment protocols but also enables real-time interoperability. This empowers oncologists to coordinate care more efficiently, track treatment pathways, and adapt plans based on patient-specific outcomes. Patients won’t have to worry about burdensome details and will get reminded when it’s time to take their medication or schedule a follow-up.” 

Built on medical expertise and security

The app serves as the vital link in a complex ecosystem, ensuring secure information flow, informed decision-making, and trust at every stage.  

Altron HealthTech consulted widely with oncologists, patients, and other medical professionals before beginning development. A base application was rolled out to specialists about a year ago, and feedback from that pilot informed the expanded platform now ready for patient testing. 

The app has been built on secure, cloud-based software-as-a-service architecture in compliance with the Protection of Personal Information Act and all relevant regulatory requirements. Patients must provide informed consent before signing up. 

Beyond supporting patients directly, ThriveLink is designed to help control healthcare costs. Cancer is among the most expensive therapeutic burdens, with the Cancer Alliance having predicted that this disease will cost the public sector an additional R50 billion between 2020 and 2030. 

“By streamlining processes and integrating claims, authorisations, and clinical data, we remove duplication and costs from the system,” says Moodley. “This can indirectly help keep medical aid premiums down, benefiting all medical scheme patients.” 

Altron HealthTech is in early-stage discussions with medical aid schemes interested in integrating the app into their mobile solutions. 

Categories : Ageing ExerciseTags :

Number of Steps Matters More for Older Women’s Health than the Frequency

On By ModernMedia

4000 steps once/twice weekly is associated with 26% lower risk of death rising to 40% if done on 3 days of the week – but it’s daily step count rather than number of days that matters, findings suggest 

Photo by Teona Swift on Unsplash

Clocking up at least 4000 daily steps on just 1 or 2 days per week is linked to a lower risk of death and cardiovascular disease among older women, according to research published online in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This large prospective study examined not only how many steps older women take but how often they reach their step targets across the week, addressing a key gap in current physical activity guidelines.

Researchers found that achieving at least 4000 steps per day on 1-2 days per week was associated with a significantly lower risk of death and lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), compared with not reaching this level on any day.

A large body of evidence shows that lifelong physical activity is important for improving the healthspan, say the researchers. But it’s not entirely clear how much physical activity people should do as they age to reap appreciable health benefits, particularly in respect of step counts which are yet to make it into physical activity guideline recommendations, they add.

To explore this further, they set out to look at the associations between daily step counts of between 4000 and 7000 and death from all causes and from cardiovascular disease in older women.

They also wanted to find out if the total number of daily steps might drive any observed associations, rather than the frequency of achieving step count thresholds, with a view to informing future guidelines–in particular the US Physical Activity Guidelines, the next edition of which is planned for 2028.

The study followed 13547 women (average age 71) from the US Women’s Health Study who wore accelerometers (activity trackers) for seven consecutive days between 2011–2015 and were tracked for nearly 11 years. The women were free of cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start of the study.

During the monitoring period of nearly 11 years up to the end of 2024, 1765 women (13%) died and 781 (5%) developed cardiovascular disease.

Clocking up at least 4000 steps/day on 1–2 days of the week was associated with a 26% lower risk of death from all causes and a 27% lower risk of a cardiovascular disease death compared with not reaching this threshold on any day of the week.

For those achieving this step count on at least 3 days of the week, the lower risk of death from any cause increased to 40%, but remained at 27% for the risk of cardiovascular death.

But while higher daily step counts of 5000 to 7000 on 3 or more days of the week were associated with a further fall in all-cause mortality risk (32%) they were associated with a levelling out in cardiovascular disease mortality risk (16%).

When the findings were adjusted to take account of average daily steps, previously observed associations weakened, suggesting that [average] steps is the key driver of the protective effect, suggest the researchers.

This is an observational study, and as such, no firm conclusions can be drawn about cause and effect. The researchers also acknowledge that physical activity was assessed only for 1 week, and therefore couldn’t account for variations in behaviour over longer periods, nor did they have information on dietary patterns.

Nevertheless, they suggest: “The present study….suggests that frequency of meeting daily step thresholds is not critical (even 1–2 days/week of ≥4000 steps/day was related to lower mortality and CVD), and that step volume is more important than the frequency of meeting daily step thresholds in the older population.”

And they go on to explain: “An important translational implication of these findings is that since step volume is the important driver of the inverse associations, there is no ‘better’ or ‘best’ pattern to take steps; individuals can undertake [physical activity] in any preferred pattern (eg, ‘slow and steady’ vs ‘bunched patterns’) for lower mortality and CVD risk, at least among older women.”

They conclude: “These findings provide additional evidence for considering including step metrics in the next [physical activity] guidelines, and that ‘bunching’ steps is a viable option for health.”

Source: BMJ Group

Categories : Pain Management Substance UseTags :

Teens More Likely to Use Opioids when Parents Have Prescriptions

On By ModernMedia

Norwegian study of more than 21 000 young people found that those whose parents had persistent opioid prescriptions faced more than double the risk of persistent opioid use

Photo by Danilo Alvesd on Unsplash

If a parent has persistent opioid prescriptions, their adolescent or young adult offspring has more than double the risk of persistent opioid use, according to a new study published October 23rd in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Anna Marcuzzi of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, and colleagues.

The prescription of strong analgesics such as opioids is not recommended for young people. However, despite potential adverse long-term consequences, opioids are often prescribed for non-malignant pain in this population.

In the new study, researchers analysed data from 21 470 adolescents and young adults aged 13-29 years who participated in the population-based Young-HUNT or HUNT Study in Norway in 2006-2008 or 2017-2019. Each participant was linked with at least one parent who also participated in the HUNT study, and opioid prescription data were obtained from the Norwegian Prescription Database.

24.4% of young people had at least one opioid prescription during the seven-year follow-up period, while 1.3% had persistent opioid prescriptions, defined as prescriptions in at least three out of four quarters of a year. When a mother had persistent opioid prescriptions over a five-year period (two years before and three years after offspring participation), their offspring had 2.60 times the risk of persistent opioid use compared to those whose mothers had no prescriptions. When a father had persistent opioid prescriptions, their offspring had 2.37 times the risk of persistent opioid use. The association was also present but weaker for non-persistent opioid prescription – offspring whose mothers had two or more prescriptions had 1.34 times the risk of receiving any opioid prescription, while those whose fathers had two or more prescriptions had 1.19 times the risk, compared to offspring whose parents had no prescriptions. There was no clear evidence that parental chronic musculoskeletal pain status influenced these associations.

The authors note that because parental opioid prescriptions were measured both before and after offspring HUNT participation, some parental opioid prescriptions could have begun after offspring opioid use. However, they conclude that there is an association between parental and offspring opioid prescriptions.

“The study findings suggest that family-based strategies should be considered when managing pain conditions in adolescents and young adults to avoid potentially unnecessary opioid use,” they say.

The authors add, “Despite restrictive opioid policies, one in four adolescents and young adults received an opioid prescription during the seven years follow-up.”

“Adolescents whose parents had two or more opioid prescriptions had a more than two-fold higher risk of persistent opioid use (ie, multiple prescriptions in a year) than if the parents had no opioid prescriptions.”

Provided by PLOS