INCLIVA Biomedical Research Institute held a workshop with 12 patients and breast cancer survivors and five health-related professionals at its headquarters in Valencia in mid-July. The workshop aimed to identify both barriers and facilitating factors that help breast cancer patients or survivors adopt a healthier lifestyle.
MELIORA is based on the need for behavioural change interventions that are aligned with cancer prevention. It aims, through pioneering approaches including mobile health, to modify dietary behaviours and increase physical activity of participants with the help of a virtual assistant, thus demonstrating the efficacy of digital therapies in breast cancer care.
INCLIVA is the clinical coordinator of the MELIORA virtual assistant interventions. For the development of these interventions, it collaborates in the analysis of the situation in Spain together with the Foundation for the Promotion of Health and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community, Fisabio. INCLIVA also leads the generation of profiles and adaptation strategies by country. It will implement MELIORA VCI (Virtual Coach Interventions) in the Spanish cohort, focusing on breast cancer patients and survivors, and will support its evaluation and scalability to other centres.
The workshop sought to establish the relationships between all patient contributions with the help of a mapping system to understand the factors influencing lifestyle change and the use of virtual technology in Spain.
Challenges to adopting a healthier lifestyle encompass knowledge about food properties, reading labels, food safety, and planning for nutrition and exercise. Additional obstacles include limited time for meal preparation or exercise, lack of cooking skills, inadequate access to resources, environmental and socio-demographic factors (such as age and ethnicity), as well as low health literacy, income, and education levels.
The workshop was led by Dr. Cristina Hernando, oncologist and principal investigator of the project at INCLIVA, and her team, which includes Dr. Blanca Alabadí and Rosana Pau, nutritionists at the Endocrinology and Nutrition Unit of the Hospital Clínico Universitario de València; Carlos Peña, biostatistician at INCLIVA, and Dr. Ana Miralles, project manager in Oncology at INCLIVA. During the three-hour session, participants actively discussed what could be the main barriers and facilitators for women to adopt healthier lifestyles and shared their experiences.
The results of the workshop will be used to train the MELIORA virtual assistant and adapt it as best as possible to the specific situation in Spain, with the ultimate goal of helping improve the quality of life of future breast cancer patients and survivors.
