POLARIS Project

Patient / Parent / Caregiver Communication Tools to clarify Leukemia Treatment and Provide Relevant Information to Support Recovery

 

Led by SIOP Europe, POLARIS is a partnership project to develop a set of communication tools that ALL (Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia) medical teams can use to explain ALL treatment protocols, medical terminology and investigations, guidance and results to patients/caregivers in an easy to understand visual language.

POLARIS aims to:

  • Improve communication between the medical team, the child / teenager / AYA  with leukemia as well as their caregivers.
  • Support adherence to therapy by making the treatment schedule easy to follow for a person, who is  not familiar with medical terminology.
  • Develop better understanding of different medical procedures among patients and caregivers and in this way reduce the anxiety associated with undergoing medical tests and investigations.
  • Give the patients a secure feeling and understanding of the situation and the treatment

POLARIS’ geographical focus is Europe, with the possibility to expand/grow the geographic reach to other world regions in future.

 

POLARIS Presentation at SIOP Congress 2022, Barcelona, Spain - Watch the video below:

 

Digital and tangible tools - Protocols' Road maps

A graphic description of the treatment path. To be used in the clinic as a tangible, paper / board-based, at the time of discussing with patients / caregivers the different steps for each specific treatment plan of the protocol. It is important to present a coherent, standard and uniform look and feel and, hence, to ensure visual design consistency across all deliverables, based on the designed road maps.

                     

       

Working groups composed of paediatric oncology professionals, nurses, psychologists, and patient advocates are working together to develop and adapt the original project for usage in different countries and groups.

The partners involved in this project are: