Main partner: ING Bank România
Sponsori: Rompetrol, Allianz Țiriac, Synevo România
Children with cancer require long-term medical care.
The management of pediatric cancer (during and after treatment) is a physically and mentally, socially and financially burdensome process for families. They are bound to make countless trips to the hospital, all contribute to this burden, which negatively affects a child’s social, emotional, and educational development. The stressful process surrounding periods of hospitalization and the schedule of outpatient clinic visits, also exposes them to risks, especially infectious.
We offer a free home care service for children with cancer for those procedures from the treatment plan devised by the attending physician that can be provided safely at home. The scope of our project is to increase the access to free medical care for children, particularly for those living in disadvantaged communities.
We are implementing this project in collaboration with Pediatric Oncology and Hematology units in Romania, with nurses specialized in pediatric oncology, under the supervision of the attending physicians.
This is a service developed under our strategic partnership with the Romanian Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology.
Our aim is to improve the chances and quality of life of sick children.
Services available under the programme:
- Collection of samples for lab tests
- Administration of medication
- Assessment and monitoring of the child between chemotherapy courses
- Assessment of quality of life and functional status using internationally standardized questionnaires
- Training family members on how to care for the child
- Psychological assessment and counselling
- Social assessment and counselling
- Palliative care
The project seeks to increase access to free healthcare for sick children, particularly for those in underprivileged rural areas.
Where is it currently carried out?
- Oncology Institute of Bucharest – the biggest Pediatric Oncology Reference Center in Romania
- County Emergency Hospital of Constanta – regional Pediatric Oncology Unit
The innovative vision of our programme is to create a best practice model that can be replicated in other pediatric oncology units or for other severe diseases of children and adults.
The home care programme is computer-based (DARA Platform) to integrate the services provided at home into the child’s complete digital health record.
Entering the information about the home visits into the DARA platform enables the attending physician, wherever they are, to constantly monitor the children’s situation, even when they are not in hospital.
Together with the Romanian Society of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology we have submitted our proposals for the National Cancer Prevention and Control Plan (Pediatric Cancers section), which are included in the law adopted by the Parliament at the end of 2022.
Both our initiatives, the Home Care Programme and the DARA platform are included in this law: “Development of multidisciplinary integrated Pediatric Oncology-Hematology services for all stages of the clinical pathway through innovative applications of information technology”.
