OnkoKIDS: Knowledge, guidance and personalised support for families.

A shared success story

How Kispi and heyPatient rapidly rebuilt a proven app on a sustainable technical foundation, ready for the gradual introduction of personalised support.

Knowledge and guidance for the whole family: OnkoKIDS brings together reliable information and important contacts for everyday life during treatment.

A cancer diagnosis changes the life of a child and their family overnight.

In paediatric oncology, treatment often lasts months, sometimes years. Between worry, hope and a daily routine filled with appointments, families need reliable guidance and quick access to trustworthy information.

This is exactly why Dr Michael Neugebauer and KD Dr Sabine Kroiss Benninger from the University Children’s Hospital Zurich developed the first OnkoKIDS app.

With heyPatient, this valuable solution has been modernised and given a flexible foundation for personalised support.

Developed from clinical practice for families

Treatment information, appointments and important documents: many families used to organise everyday treatment with paper folders and their own spreadsheets. A survey of affected parents and the experience of care teams revealed what really helps in daily life. This led to the first OnkoKIDS app.

The Oncology Management System (OMS) and the first app were also developed by Dr Michael Neugebauer together with the oncology team. Both solutions grew out of clinical practice and a deep understanding of the needs of children, families, doctors and nurses.

With heyPatient, the app gained a modern, sustainable technical foundation: a fresh design, intuitive navigation, easily maintained editorial content, offline functionality, secure login and continuous technical development to accommodate new devices, operating systems, security requirements and app store standards.

"For us, the key was to put the proven OnkoKIDS app on a sustainable technical and design foundation. With heyPatient, we can expand it step by step and respond to new requirements without starting from scratch every time.”

Dr. med. Michael Neugebauer, M.Sc. M.Sc.

Senior Physician and CMIO, University Children’s Hospital Zurich

Easy to look up: medical information, answers to frequently asked questions and the right contacts are always close at hand with OnkoKIDS.

What families really need

Paediatric oncology has its own particular requirements: medication changes as children grow, school and family life continue, and parents often act on behalf of their child.

During this difficult time, families do not need more information, but the right information at the moment a question or uncertainty arises.

Easier access today, ready for personalised support

The first app already offered a valuable collection of contacts, emergency information, answers to frequently asked questions, information on treatment and supportive measures, support services and age-appropriate book recommendations.

The new version presents this content, carefully curated by Kispi, in a more modern, varied and accessible way. At the same time, it creates the technical foundation to gradually connect OnkoKIDS with personalised digital support for families.

• Freely accessible at any time: FAQs, the information library, emergency information, videos, images, PDFs and links are immediately available through guest access. Key content also works offline.

• The right contact at the right time: The app automatically displays the appropriate contact depending on the time of day, at night or at weekends.

• A deliberately focused start: In the first phase, the new OnkoKIDS app focuses on providing a modern information resource. Personalised features can be activated and expanded gradually on the same foundation.

• Ready for personalised support: People who already use the Kispi app can see the same personal services, such as appointments and messages, in OnkoKIDS. These are complemented by specialist guidance along the paediatric oncology CarePath.

• Designed for families: Parents and authorised caregivers can access services on behalf of the child through heyFamily. The user interface is available in 21 languages.

The app cannot take away the burden of cancer. But it can provide guidance, reduce uncertainty and keep important support just a few taps away.

Guidance outside consultation hours: OnkoKIDS displays the appropriate contact depending on the time of day, at night or at weekends.

Ready on a new foundation within weeks

Once the team had agreed on how the new OnkoKIDS app should look and work, heyPatient delivered the first version on its existing platform within two weeks.

This speed was possible because there was no need to start from scratch: the sustainable technical architecture was already in place and was enhanced with new, configurable functional modules in heyPortal. This makes it possible to start with a clear focus, deliver value quickly and expand flexibly over time.

“What convinces me is the reliability of our collaboration with heyPatient. From understanding our needs to ongoing development, we experience a partner who engages with the realities of paediatric oncology and consistently considers simplicity and sustainability.”

KD Dr. med. Sabine Kroiss Benninger

Senior Physician and Head of the Oncology Outpatient Clinic, University Children’s Hospital Zurich

By parents, for parents

The modernisation was also made possible by the support of Stiftung Sonnenschein.

For heyPatient, the project was personal too: all four founders are parents of at least three children each, and the heyPatient story began with an experience in a children’s emergency department.

Out of conviction, heyPatient waived around two thirds of the development and deployment costs. A shared contribution to bring digital support to where it can make a particularly meaningful difference.

By parents, for parents: financial support from Stiftung Sonnenschein and the commitment of heyPatient made the modernisation of OnkoKIDS possible. heyPatient waived around two thirds of the development and deployment costs.

The strength of a patient-centered platform

The standard heyPatient app already offers a comprehensive range of features and is used by some clinics.

A branded app additionally enables an institution or specialist service to create its own distinct presence, with its own content, a tailored selection of features and integrated third-party solutions. This is how the KSB, paraplegie, Kispi, myGynhealth, SMCC and now OnkoKIDS apps were created on the same platform, without developing a new app from scratch each time.

Because heyPatient is patient-centred, users see their own appointments, messages and documents in every app. The app they prefer to use depends on their healthcare partner or, as with OnkoKIDS, on a particular condition and CarePath.

The personal data stays the same. The specialist guidance and specific content change.

The family at the centre: personal services remain accessible across the different apps. Specialist content complements the support, while personalised features are enabled gradually.

OnkoKIDS therefore focuses on the paediatric oncology CarePath. Families can find Kispi-curated information on diagnostics, treatment and emergencies in one place, alongside videos, images, information sheets, PDFs, useful links, partner organisations, book recommendations and contact numbers appropriate to the time of day.

The oncology team can create and update content independently, directly in heyPortal.

New configurable information types and an intuitive WYSIWYG editor support text, images, videos, hyperlinks and other content without technical assistance. Once approved, changes are available directly in the app.

This keeps medical knowledge with the specialist team and allows the app to remain up to date without waiting for an app release.

Behind this is heyPatient’s modular set of features. Depending on requirements, heyFamily, personal appointments, messages, documents, tasks and other services can be activated and combined with clinic-specific content or integrated third-party solutions. The clinic decides which features make sense at each stage.

Up-to-date information directly from the specialist team: content can be maintained independently in heyPortal and made available after approval without a new app release.

Dahinter steht der modulare Funktionsbaukasten von heyPatient. Je nach Bedarf lassen sich beispielsweise heyFamily, persönliche Termine, Nachrichten, Dokumente, Aufgaben und weitere Services aktivieren und mit klinikspezifischen Inhalten oder integrierten Drittlösungen verbinden. Die Klinik entscheidet, welche Funktionen zu welchem Zeitpunkt sinnvoll sind.

Ready for the next ideas

The OMS interface remains part of the target vision. On the same foundation, OnkoKIDS can gradually become more personalised, connect more closely with the digital patient journey and, in future, also be made available to other interested children’s hospitals with paediatric oncology services.

The OnkoKIDS team looks forward to providing more valuable content and features for children, young people and their families. There are plenty of ideas. With the new platform, they can become reality step by step.

Supporting families step by step: planned features include appointments and treatment plans, laboratory results, reports and findings, and personalised support along the paediatric oncology CarePath.

Every child is different, every family experiences illness differently, and every care team has its own requirements for good support.

OnkoKIDS creates the foundation to respond to these differences: with reliable knowledge today and new possibilities for personalised support tomorrow.