Macmillan My Data Store for Small Service Providers
Our last post about the Macmillan My Data Store pilot talked about testing a web-app that connects the friends and family supporting a person with cancer together so they can access information that needs to be shared with them, allowing them to more easily and securely communicate with each other. We’re really pleased to have recently completed testing the third and final of the three connecting web apps. This one’s for people and organisations who provide services in support of those affected by cancer. It’s built for public or third sector services, staffed by either professionals or volunteers who provide a diverse range of services and support to people using the Improving the Cancer Journey service.
Just to take a moment to revisit the reason Macmillan partnered with Mydex CIC for this pilot project:
Glasgow City and West Dunbartonshire Improving the Cancer Journey Services help people affected by cancer to get the emotional, financial, medical, spiritual or practical support they need. Helping people with so many different parts of their lives means communicating with many organisations, which means a lot of information being passed around. This is not always as secure or practical as it could be, and it can often be stressful and repetitive, both for people in need of support and the staff who provide that support.
Many of these service providers are small organisations with limited systems for managing personal data and limited time or capacity to ensure they’re up to scratch when it comes to GDPR and other compliance requirements.
The service provider web app creates a safe, secure way for people with cancer and those who support them to connect with service providers in a way that has person-centredness built in. It removes the need for most service providers to capture or send information manually and supports scheduling and tracking of people with cancer who are referred to their services by Macmillan’s Improving the Cancer Journey service (ICJ).
Like the other two connecting web apps, it is built using our person-centred design system, which takes best practice from Scottish and UK Government and complies with the latest accessibility standards. It can work on any device that connects to the internet.
The pilot web app features:
- Secure two-way messaging, stored in Personal Data Stores belonging to both service providers and those they’re supporting.
- Client lists and details
- A calendar
- A homepage that has notifications to keep track of messages and other client interactions.
It provides a way for service providers to connect to those using the ICJ service in a person-centred way. Many smaller service providers we identified during the scoping study were still paper based or used basic spreadsheet software, along with email and a phone. The Web App will mean they will have access to a simple, easy-to-use interface tailored to managing their service. It will enable them to communicate with those they support, remove the need for form filling or repeating the same questions.
To test the web app, we had workshops with five different people from organisations of varying sizes who provide different services to the ICJ.
“I like the login page for its simplicity, very much. And I see that theme is carried through.”
~ GP
Overall, the feedback on the web app itself was similar to our other groups: they liked its simplicity. For service providers this had some obvious further benefits too, as the simplicity of the app made them confident they could train staff or support less technically confident people to use it, even remotely. Service providers could see how its ease of use as well as the underlying data available would support an efficient way of working so teams can spend less time on administrative tasks and have more time to provide people affected by cancer the best support.
We had a good amount of suggestions for expanding the web app, including expanding various features like the calendar to have further functionality like note-taking or reminders.
Two suggestions really stood out: One was how important power of attorney is for many service providers, and how helpful it would be to have a privacy-protecting way of making it clear who had power of attorney on behalf of whom. We thought a verified attribute token could be used to make it clear who has this and to link service providers to their friends and family web application or similar.
The other was for people affected by cancer or their link workers to be able to include their goals when referred — what they’d like to achieve through using a service. A couple of people we spoke to mentioned how helpful it would be to just see at a glance what people they’re supporting were wanting and hoping to achieve, so they can better focus on providing their service from the person’s perspective.
“From a referrers perspective, it’s good to see information about their clients and to understand better what they are going through”
~ Fitness trainer
A particularly poignant piece of feedback from the workshops was to see person-centredness emphasised in a small but significant way: we decided to build a web app for connecting to ‘clients’ based on our 2018 scoping project. A few of the service providers stated they’d like this changed to ‘people’.
Now we’ve completed workshops with all three web-apps, the next stage of the pilot is to start helping people using the ICJ. We’ll be rolling out Macmillan My Data Store later this year and we can’t wait to see how person-centred data can help Improve the Cancer Journey for everyone: people living with cancer, those close to them, and the staff on the frontline of services.
