Project Medicine, a start-up supported by the King’s Entrepreneurship Institute as part of their King’s 20 Accelerator programme, is developing an app that will help doctors to detect cancer in patients.

With one-in-three people likely to get cancer during their lifetime, the Cancer Calculator is a mobile app that uses an evidenced-based algorithm to signpost to doctors which symptoms should be referred as suspected cancers.

Project Medicine was founded just two years ago by King’s alumni Bhavagaya Bakshi and Miles Payling, both junior doctors. Since then, they have created a portfolio of mobile applications, ranging from education tools to apps facilitating communication within Hospital Trusts.

The Cancer Calculator app was created after the release of the 2015 NICE referral guidelines for suspected cancer. In response to the complexity of the guidelines making it difficult for them to be used in general practice, the app was developed to quickly assess patients and decide whether a referral should be made. The Cancer Calculator app has since received support from many leading charities who recognise the need for the app and from healthcare bodies who would like to pilot the app.

Dr Bhavagaya Bakshi said: ‘As doctors we are at the frontline, seeing first-hand the difficulties when delivering high quality and safe care to patients. We co-founded Project Medicine with the passion to deliver creative and novel solutions to healthcare challenges, using technology innovatively.’

Speaking of her time at King’s, she added: ‘As a past student of King’s I was able to benefit from the strong foundation in healthcare innovation and social thinking. My consultants encouraged me when analysing patient pathways to think creatively when finding solutions to improve patient care.’

Interested in finding out more about the King’s Entrepreneurship 20 Ventures?  Check out their website at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/innovation/innovation/entrepreneurship-institute/Entrepreneurship-Institute-Homepage.aspx

More information about the Cancer Calculator app can be found on Project Medicine’s website at http://www.projectmedicine.com/