Careology, the leading international digital cancer care platform, has teamed up with Boots to provide additional support, care and advice for patients with cancer.
The collaboration, which is available initially at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, enables patients to access digital and pharmacy-led support from Boots Macmillan Information Pharmacists (BMIPs) through the Careology app.
Careology has built tech-enabled cancer care navigation to help ease the burden on the NHS and ensure quick and convenient access to support for patients undergoing treatment for cancer.
For the first time in the UK, the technology uses intelligence developed collaboratively to understand the risk of patients’ side effects and enable patients with low-risk side effects to access a BMIP. Patients can access care through the Careology app from anywhere.
BMIPs are Boots pharmacists who have had extra training, developed jointly by Macmillan Cancer Support and Boots, to support people affected by cancer. The collaboration between Careology and Boots will enable BMIPs to provide additional advice and care throughout a patient’s cancer treatment and can cover a range of practical and emotional concerns.
The BMIPs delivering support to patients via the Careology app have been trained as Independent Prescribers, enabling them to provide prescription-only medication for the management of symptoms, if required, for next-day delivery to a patient’s home. This allows mild symptoms and side effects to be managed quickly and easily.
With the levels of urgent suspected NHS cancer referrals continuing to rise, cancer incidence rates are increasing and more accessible care is needed. The Government’s 10 Year Health Plan for England advocates for care, where appropriate, to be moved from analogue to digital, and from a hospital setting into the community.
Currently, side effects flagged as ‘green’ or ‘amber’ within the Careology app, using the UKONS classifications, are often triaged by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS oncology nurses on a dedicated Acute Oncology Service (AOS) helpline. Green symptoms, such as mild pain, fatigue and nausea typically require guidance or medication without urgent or acute interventions. Of more than 6,000 calls to this helpline in 2022, approximately 40 per cent were advisory in nature and could have been effectively managed outside the hospital.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ treats around 6,500 patients with cancer each year and, in the period of April to October 2024, the AOS helpline received around 500 calls per month. Demand for this service is projected to grow in tandem with rising cancer incidence rates and the increasing number of people living with cancer in the UK – a figure Macmillan estimates growing from 3.5 million cases in 2025 to 4 million by 2030.
Dr Majid Kazmi, Director of Innovation for Cancer and Surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: ‘We are delighted to expand our partnership with Careology to include the expertise and support of Boots Macmillan Information Pharmacists in this innovative new model of care delivery.
“This has the power to redirect care from hospitals, where safe and appropriate, in order that patients who require more complex hospital based care can be seen more quickly.
“This enables our clinical teams to intervene early when something is not right and ensure that patients are getting the right care at the right time in the right setting.’
In addition to the care and support already provided by the cancer teams at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, the Careology app will enable patients to self-manage and better understand aspects of their treatment including medication, side effects and symptom tracking. The patient-reported information is available on the Careology Professional dashboard for cancer teams to have consistent access to how their patients are managing their condition.
Paul Landau, Founder and CEO of Careology, said: ‘We are thrilled to be working with Boots to deliver this transformational new model of cancer care, ensuring people going through treatment can access help outside of hospital appointments without defaulting to Acute Oncology Services or A&E.
“We have already seen how unnecessary hospital admissions can be reduced by 70 per cent when using Careology together with centralised support lines.
“Through this work, we can replicate this impact and further empower patients with milder symptoms, ensuring they receive the right care quickly.
“This will alleviate pressure on the NHS by ensuring Clinical Nurse Specialists are able to focus on patients most in need of urgent care.”
Marc Donovan, Director of Healthcare Development and Public Affairs at Boots, said: “Boots Macmillan Information Pharmacists are specially trained to offer a wide range of practical and emotional support for those living with cancer.
“They already provide an invaluable service to patients in Boots stores across the UK, and I am delighted that we are able to collaborate with Careology to make this support available to more people that need it.”
For more information, visit https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/careology.
