ChemoRight: AI-Powered, Safer Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy has been saving lives for nearly 80 years, and has improved in leaps and bounds over that time. Yet, finding the right dose for each patient remains a major challenge, with overdosing posing serious risks and causing severe side effects. Enter PredicTx – a groundbreaking AI-powered tool developed by Professor Justin Yeung and his team at Western Health. This revolutionary digital health tool identifies overdosing and predicts chemotherapy toxicity, ensuring safer, more personalised treatment.
And now, thanks to a $50,000 grant from Telematics Trust to the Western Health Foundation, the team is now fast-tracking ChemoRight, an accompanying app that transforms PredicTx’s complex data into easy-to-understand visuals to inform dosage levels. By combining powerful AI with intuitive design, ChemoRight will empower both clinicians and patients to monitor, adjust, and optimise chemotherapy dosing in real time, ensuring more accurate treatment with less adverse effects.
Tackling Overdosing in Colorectal Cancer Treatment
Colorectal cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in Australia, affecting 1 in 19 Australians during their lifetime. Despite chemotherapy being a key treatment, dosing is still based on body surface area (BSA) rather than body composition (muscle, fat, and bone ratios). This often leads to overdosing, unintended side effects and a deterioration in a patient’s quality of life. It was this challenge that inspired Professor Yeung, a renowned Colorectal cancer surgeon, to develop PredicTx, a tech-powered solution that makes chemotherapy dosing safer and more precise.
While PredicTx provides revolutionary algorithmic insights, it needs to be translated into easy-to-understand and actionable guidance for clinicians and patients. That’s where ChemoRight comes in. With support from Telematics Trust, ChemoRight will become the world’s first chemotherapy dosing guidance app, providing real-time, visual dosing recommendations in an easy-to-use smartphone interface. This digital tool will enhance patient safety, empower clinicians, and create a scalable solution for cancer treatment—not just in Victoria, but worldwide.
The Future of Digital Health and Chemotherapy
With Victoria’s health system under increasing pressure to deliver more effective, cost-efficient care, digital health technology is set to play a critical role in the future. Professor Yeung, a leader in the field, emphasised the importance of innovation in chemotherapy dosing:
‘Cancer cure heavily depends on the successful completion of chemotherapy treatment. Unfortunately, current chemotherapy dosing is highly inaccurate, based on a patient's height and weight. We are working with clinicians and patients to develop ChemoRight—a co-designed app that helps guide clinicians in accurately dosing chemotherapy. Telematics Trust has provided the much-needed support to make this innovative solution a reality. We are incredibly grateful for their support!’
Importantly, ChemoRight is due to be rolled out in the public health service, ensuring that the AI-driven insights, digital health solutions, and a commitment to safer, more effective chemotherapy it will provide reaches vulnerable and diverse groups that are overrepresented in the Western Health system.
A Two-time Partnership
ChemoRight marks the second grant Telematics Trust has awarded to the Western Health Foundation in as many years. This should come as no surprise given Western Health’s commitment to not only providing high-quality, person-centred care to over one million people in Melbourne’s West, but also to innovation, inclusion and excellence. We encourage everyone to follow along for updates on this and all of Western Health Foundation’s initiatives on their website.