Supported by City Cancer Challenge Foundation (C/Can) and Allm MEA FZ-LLC, Rwanda Biomedical Centre has set up a project to enable the multidisciplinary exchange of information and cancer patient navigation. 

Aimed at improving decision-making and reducing delays in patient treatment, the Patient Navigation/Interoperability project, launched on January 14, will initially serve patients with breast and cervical cancer and will later be extended to other types of cancer.

Statistics from the Rwanda Cancer Registry show that breast cancer is the most prevalent form of the disease, followed by cervical cancer. Much remains to be done to increase awareness and early detection.

Under the project, doctors from different cancer treatment facilities in Rwanda will form inter-hospital Multi-disciplinary Teams (MTDs) to discuss and share inputs for effective treatment decisions and improve the flow of communication as patients undergo different stages of treatment.

"Cancer care in the country has not been properly harmonized, and we have seen that some centres may treat cancer in different ways. We need to promote a culture of collective decision-making for cancer care,” said Dr Cyprien Shyirambere, Director of Oncology at Partners in Health, the Boston-based not-for-profit healthcare organisation which works in Rwanda.

Intra-hospital MDTs will also allow specialists treating the same patient to agree on the best treatment plan.

"A cancer patient is not treated by one doctor, the patient goes through different medical hands such as a chemotherapist, a surgeon, a radiotherapist, pharmacist, and a nurse. This project will provide a platform for multi-disciplinary team discussions,” Added Dr Shyirambere. 

There are five cancer centres in Rwanda; the University Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK), University Teaching Hospital of Butare (CHUB), King Faisal Hospital, Rwanda Military Hospital (RMH) and Butaro Cancer Centre of Excellence (BCCOE).

Each will have a designated nurse navigator who will be in charge of handling and following up on all processes cancer patients go through, from screening, orientation, data entry, treatment process, discussion of available health insurance incentives, and advocacy.

Dr Marc Hagenimana, Acting Director of the Cancer Diseases Unit at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) said that data from the national cancer registry indicate that half of diagnosed cancer patients do not complete all required services for treatment.

"We need patient/nurse navigators that can support follow-up on patients in health facilities and help direct them to clinicians and ensure that we don’t have patients who do not complete diagnosis and treatment,” he said.

The project is designed around a digital platform called Join that documents patients’ data from diagnosis through the different stages of treatment and resolution. The data can be accessed by different doctors from the five cancer centres involved in the treatment process.

"The platform will help improve collaboration between the different digital systems we are using to ensure that patient care is documented and followed up properly,” said Hagenimana.

"The application will facilitate the exchange of information among doctors; for instance, if a doctor at CHUK has a patient who had a CT scan at RMH, the application will help access images of that patient directly,'' explainedDr Shyirambere.

He added that the application ensures patient confidentiality as it is designed so that only authorized clinicians can access it.