Bengaluru teen develops app to aid cancer patient support, empower caregivers
A 16-year-old student from Bengaluru has developed a mobile app to help support a group often "forgotten" in the cancer care journey - the caregivers.Avani Radheshyam, a student of class XI at 10X International School, launched OncoCaregiver, an app designed to offer emotional, medical, and logistical support to those caring for cancer patients.The initiative stems from Avani's personal experience watching her family members struggle while looking after two loved ones diagnosed with stage 2 cancer.advertisement
"Both my grandmother and aunt were diagnosed a few years ago. My parents were their primary caregivers, and I saw first-hand how hard it was, emotionally and practically. They were managing complex treatments, making difficult decisions, and providing round-the-clock support, all while trying to stay strong," she told IndiaToday.in.Coming from a family of oncologists, Avani was no stranger to the world of cancer care. However, she noticed that while there are many innovations being developed for patients, the people supporting them - called caregivers - often receive little or no help.
Her understanding deepened during an internship at an oncology hospital in Bengaluru. There, she interviewed dozens of caregivers and conducted surveys across the city.advertisementThe findings revealed high levels of anxiety, depression, burnout, and confusion around treatment options. Many also reported feeling isolated and overwhelmed."It became clear to me that caregivers need support just as urgently as the patients do. A cancer diagnosis affects two lives - the patient's and the caregiver's. But only one gets help, especially in India," Avani said.To bridge this gap, she created OncoCaregiver, a one-stop app offering a suite of tools tailored to caregivers' needs. These include access to psychologists specialising in caregiver burnout, a dedicated cancer coach to explain treatment plans, cancer-specific meal planning from medical nutritionists, and a peer-support chat group.The app also provides online yoga and meditation sessions, emergency resources, and a verified directory of oncologists for second opinions. Crucially, it offers these services either free or at subsidised rates, with completely free access for rural and underprivileged users.
OncoCaregiver app developer Avani Radheshyam with her parents.
Since launching in October 2024, the app has supported over 50 caregivers, built over 1,000 members on Instagram, conducted workshops on palliative care and mindfulness, and onboarded student volunteers from across colleges.advertisementAvani said that work is underway to expand access by translating the app and website into nine regional Indian languages."This app is meant to be a lifeline. Caregivers are the unsung heroes of the cancer fight. With this app, they are no longer left behind," Avani said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Trump is forcing us to confront the myth of the American dream itself
At the height of the Covid pandemic, a philosopher and an academic in the US began writing to each other discussing everything from careers to chronic pain. These letters have now taken the shape of 'The End Doesn't Happen All At Once: A Pandemic Memoir'. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now In a conversation with Shruti Sonal , Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan, an English professor, and Chi Rainer Bornfree , who co-founded a school for activists, talk about the Covid years and the impact of Trump You've spoken about how writing about the pandemic — something people have been eager to forget — felt like looking directly into the sun. What drove you to publish this series of letters? R: This is a deeply lived-in book for me — one that allowed me to attend, in both an intimate and expansive way, to what it meant to be alive during a time of dramatic social, geopolitical, and technological upheaval. During the pandemic, we were all aware of tragedies unfolding on multiple scales, even as we experienced moments of joy, beauty, and connection in our own lives. How could we hold all of that complexity together? How might we stay with it, rather than turn away? We published this memoir as an offering to readers who might be moved by the way we valued our own and each other's lives, and who might find strength in what one reader described as our 'deep and curious' friendship. It's important to remember those years not only because they were marked by loss and devastation — much of which has not yet been adequately grieved — but also because they revealed new possibilities, moments of radical awakening, and potential solidarities. Covid and measles cases are rising, and vaccination rates are falling. Do you think any lessons have been learnt? C: There was learning — briefly — but after the initial shock, there was much more forgetting and active suppression of what we learned. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now With cases rising in the US of bird flu and measles, I hope that masking and other acts to care for public health will surface quickly from our societies' muscle-memory. But I worry that, like someone who persistently misspells a common word, too many Americans are clinging stubbornly to the wrong lessons from the pandemic: that we can't trust the experts, that it's 'us against them', or that 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Ragini, in one letter, you write about the dilemmas of being an Indian writing in English, a colonial bequest and the language of the elites. How do you see the current push for translated literature in India vis-a-vis the future of Indian writing in English? It's a very exciting time for Indian literature — from the global success of translated works like Banu Mushtaq's 'Heart Lamp' to the growing practice of literary translation between Indian languages that no longer relies on English as a kind of neutral mediator, as was so often the case in the past. As an Indian American who writes in English and works primarily on the contemporary, I'm especially interested in the decentering — even provincialisation — of Indian diasporic writers, Anglo-American literatures, and Anglophone ambassadors for India in the West. In a very real sense, India no longer needs English (the language or its writers) to speak for it. At the same time, it would be foolish to deny that English is already an Indian language, with its own indigenous life. In my recent book on literary studies, 'Overdetermined', I examine how Indian English writing is made 'American', so to speak, through its circulation in ethnic and postcolonial literature classrooms. In one chapter, I argue that the challenge now is to be careful not to allow demotic, so-called 'vernacular' English texts to stand in for — or crowd out — the urgent need to read and publish works in translation. As an academic in the US, how do you see the Trump administration's assault on universities? Is this the beginning of the end of the great American dream for many immigrant students? R: In many ways, the violence the Trump administration has inflicted on US higher education is only accelerating a trend that's been underway since the turn of the century: immigrant students, especially from India and China, choosing to return 'home' because the future — politically, economically, and intellectually — is increasingly centered in a rising Asia, in a post-American world. But yes, in another sense, it does feel like the beginning of the end of the American dream for many immigrant students. My parents came to the US for college and graduate school in the early 1980s, and it's hard to imagine their particular trajectories being possible today. If there's a silver lining, perhaps it's that we're being forced to confront the myth of the American dream itself — recognising that it was never universally accessible, and that many have experienced it as a nightmare. As an academic, I still hope we can preserve what's best about our universities: as spaces of meaningful knowledge production and critical inquiry, and as institutions committed to broad-based access and opportunity. Chi, you run The Activist Graduate School (AGS). What role is it playing as students in the US get arrested and deported for their activism? AGS is an experimental set of courses on activism that my partner Micah Bornfree and I started because we saw that movements like Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter had achieved huge mobilisation very quickly, but failed to realise enduring material transformations. We wanted to enable activists on and off campus to break with groupthink and tired modes of protest, and innovate new methods of seizing power. Ragini and I both went to the University of California, Berkeley, the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement in the 1960s which paved the way for much student activism today. Those rights are now being eroded.
Time of India
2 hours ago
- Time of India
Weight-loss drug bulks up sales as patients upgrade dosage
Eli Lilly's weight-loss and diabetes drug, Mounjaro, has rapidly gained popularity in India, achieving Rs 24 crore in sales within three months. Young adults in their 30s and 40s are showing significant interest, with many upgrading to higher doses. While experts acknowledge its potential in addressing obesity, they caution about long-term efficacy, side effects, and affordability for the Indian population. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Mumbai: Sales of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly 's blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drug, have touched Rs 24 crore within three months of its India launch, making it one of the most popular and fastest adopted new drugs in the country, with many people in their thirties and early forties showing sales grew 60% month on month to Rs 12.60 crore last month from Rs 7.87 crore in April, with the 5 mg injections accounting for Rs 7.53 crore—up 145% from Rs 3.08 crore in the previous month, data from industry tracker PharmaTrac showed. This indicates that patients are upgrading to higher doses after taking an initial base dose of 2.5 mg, experts doctors recommend a dose escalation to 5 mg after one month of starting the medication, depending on side effects. Mounjaro is currently available in 2.5 mg and 5 mg injections in India. Sales of 2.5 mg injections rose to Rs 5.08 crore in May from Rs 4.80 crore in April and Rs 1.42 crore in March, when it was launched, according to PharmaTrac data.'Our data indicates patients upgrading to higher dose after four weeks as well as new patients onboarding on lower dose,' said Sheetal Sapale, vice president, commercial, at endocrinologists said many people in their 30s and early 40s are reaching out to doctors to check if they could use the medication to lose weight.'There are many young people asking me if they could use the drug,' said Vyankatesh Shivane, diabetology and endocrinology consultant at Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre in Mumbai. He said Indian patients are responding well to tirzepatide (Mounjaro).'Clinical trials conducted previously on Indian obese diabetes patients have shown good weight loss benefits at more than 20% as well as good sugar control,' Shivane said. 'Both semaglutide (Novo Nordisk's Wegovy) and tirzepatide have completed cardiovascular safety trials and have shown added benefits of reduction of cardiovascular events in Type 2 diabetes patients,' he drugmaker Novo Nordisk is expected to launch its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy in India this year. Doctors said medications like Mounjaro and Wegovy could prove an actionable remedy in a country of 80 million obese they cautioned that it would take four to six months to assess their effect on a larger Indian population regarding actual weight loss efficacy, potential weight regain after stopping the medication, and side to Shivane, clinical trails have shown weight regain of 5-7% once the drug is stopped. 'That is where patients will need counselling in order to adopt a healthier lifestyle including healthy dietary habits and regular exercise,' he Kumar Sinha, consultant physician at Mumbai-based WeCare Wellness, said, 'The molecule is good. Global studies suggest there are patients who have benefitted from it, but there are also those who have dropped out due to side effects that are mostly gastrointestinal in nature.' Commonly reported side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation and abdominal pain. Sinha said it will take 3-4 months to tell how the drug is working on Indian patients. 'One also has to look at the affordability issue,' he added. In India, Mounjaro is priced at Rs 3,500 for a 2.5 mg vial and Rs 4,375 for a 5 mg vial, which translates to Rs 14,000-17,500 per month, depending on the weekly dose. This means a six month treatment could cost about Rs 1 to a recent study published in leading medical journal Lancet, 70% of India's urban population is classified as obese, or overweight.'Obesity is like a pandemic in India and diabetes is very common and it is one of the useful drugs,' Anurag Lila, visiting consultant endocrinologist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital in Mumbai, told ET in a recent interaction.
Economic Times
2 hours ago
- Economic Times
Weight-loss drug bulks up sales as patients upgrade dosage
Eli Lilly's weight-loss and diabetes drug, Mounjaro, has rapidly gained popularity in India, achieving Rs 24 crore in sales within three months. Young adults in their 30s and 40s are showing significant interest, with many upgrading to higher doses. While experts acknowledge its potential in addressing obesity, they caution about long-term efficacy, side effects, and affordability for the Indian population. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Mumbai: Sales of Mounjaro, Eli Lilly 's blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drug, have touched Rs 24 crore within three months of its India launch, making it one of the most popular and fastest adopted new drugs in the country, with many people in their thirties and early forties showing sales grew 60% month on month to Rs 12.60 crore last month from Rs 7.87 crore in April, with the 5 mg injections accounting for Rs 7.53 crore—up 145% from Rs 3.08 crore in the previous month, data from industry tracker PharmaTrac showed. This indicates that patients are upgrading to higher doses after taking an initial base dose of 2.5 mg, experts doctors recommend a dose escalation to 5 mg after one month of starting the medication, depending on side effects. Mounjaro is currently available in 2.5 mg and 5 mg injections in India. Sales of 2.5 mg injections rose to Rs 5.08 crore in May from Rs 4.80 crore in April and Rs 1.42 crore in March, when it was launched, according to PharmaTrac data.'Our data indicates patients upgrading to higher dose after four weeks as well as new patients onboarding on lower dose,' said Sheetal Sapale, vice president, commercial, at endocrinologists said many people in their 30s and early 40s are reaching out to doctors to check if they could use the medication to lose weight.'There are many young people asking me if they could use the drug,' said Vyankatesh Shivane, diabetology and endocrinology consultant at Jaslok Hospital & Research Centre in Mumbai. He said Indian patients are responding well to tirzepatide (Mounjaro).'Clinical trials conducted previously on Indian obese diabetes patients have shown good weight loss benefits at more than 20% as well as good sugar control,' Shivane said. 'Both semaglutide (Novo Nordisk's Wegovy) and tirzepatide have completed cardiovascular safety trials and have shown added benefits of reduction of cardiovascular events in Type 2 diabetes patients,' he drugmaker Novo Nordisk is expected to launch its blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy in India this year. Doctors said medications like Mounjaro and Wegovy could prove an actionable remedy in a country of 80 million obese they cautioned that it would take four to six months to assess their effect on a larger Indian population regarding actual weight loss efficacy, potential weight regain after stopping the medication, and side to Shivane, clinical trails have shown weight regain of 5-7% once the drug is stopped. 'That is where patients will need counselling in order to adopt a healthier lifestyle including healthy dietary habits and regular exercise,' he Kumar Sinha, consultant physician at Mumbai-based WeCare Wellness, said, 'The molecule is good. Global studies suggest there are patients who have benefitted from it, but there are also those who have dropped out due to side effects that are mostly gastrointestinal in nature.' Commonly reported side effects include nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation and abdominal pain. Sinha said it will take 3-4 months to tell how the drug is working on Indian patients. 'One also has to look at the affordability issue,' he added. In India, Mounjaro is priced at Rs 3,500 for a 2.5 mg vial and Rs 4,375 for a 5 mg vial, which translates to Rs 14,000-17,500 per month, depending on the weekly dose. This means a six month treatment could cost about Rs 1 to a recent study published in leading medical journal Lancet, 70% of India's urban population is classified as obese, or overweight.'Obesity is like a pandemic in India and diabetes is very common and it is one of the useful drugs,' Anurag Lila, visiting consultant endocrinologist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital in Mumbai, told ET in a recent interaction.
