MY Health: Helping Young Adults Take Charge of Their Health

Overview: Growing up comes with many changes, and one of the biggest is learning to manage your own healthcare. Moving from parent-guided pediatric cancer care to self-managed adult care can feel overwhelming. Understanding treatment effects, scheduling appointments, and talking directly with healthcare providers can be a lot to handle. Recognizing this challenge, Radiant, in collaboration with the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey (CINJ), has launched a transformative digital intervention called Managing Your Health (MYH). Originally supported by a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), this project is a major step forward in modernizing survivorship care for young adults, and additional functionality has been developed as part of a phase 2 project.

MYH is a research-tested program that combines self-guided education, interactive media, and peer mentorship to empower young adult cancer survivors with the skills, knowledge, and support needed to take charge of their health in adulthood. With the support of survivor feedback and cutting-edge technologies, Radiant is enhancing MYH and transitioning it from a responsive website to a smartphone app to maximize accessibility, engagement, and scalability.

Challenge:

For many young adult survivors of pediatric cancer, stepping into self-managed care is confusing and intimidating. Without guidance, it’s easy to miss follow-ups, misunderstand treatment plans, or overlook long-term health risks. This can lead to gaps in care, avoidable complications, and a sense of feeling lost in the healthcare system. Many young adults feel unprepared for these responsibilities after years of parent-guided care.

The Managing Your Health program was created to bridge this critical gap, but as digital behaviors and expectations evolved, so did the need to modernize its delivery. The primary challenge was to enhance the program’s design and delivery for today’s mobile-first users while maintaining its evidence-based foundation. This meant improving usability, personalizing content, enabling timely support, and ensuring seamless access to crucial resources.

Solution:

To meet this challenge, Radiant and Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey embarked on an ambitious project to revamp MYH into a personalized, engaging, and easy-to-navigate mobile app. Building on the success of the original web-based program, the mobile version continues to provide:

The app kicks off with an onboarding survey that tailors the learning experience to the user’s needs. A card-based Dashboard interface offers easy access to core modules and “just-in-time” learning segments—such as “Understanding Health Insurance” or “Tips for Stress”—for flexible, need-based support. Users can track their progress, receive timely notifications, and connect with their peer mentor, all within a user-friendly mobile interface.

Technologies Used:

To deliver a high-quality, scalable experience, Radiant leveraged modern tools and frameworks. Here’s a breakdown of the technology powering the MYH mobile app:

• Cross-Platform Development with Ionic

~ Built using the Ionic framework, allowing seamless deployment on both iOS and Android.
~ Utilized React components to maintain a consistent user experience with minimal platform-specific code.
~ Enabled rapid development and cost-effective maintenance.

• Headless CMS with STRAPI

~ Implemented STRAPI, a Node.js-based headless CMS, for managing all educational and media content.
~ Hosted on AWS Elastic Beanstalk, ensuring scalability and minimal downtime.
~ STRAPI includes a Content Type Builder and Media Library, offering flexibility in content updates.

• Dynamic Content Delivery

~ App retrieves content via HTTP requests, returned as JSON objects for display in the interface.
~ Planned integration of GraphQL API for advanced querying and performance improvements.

• Efficient Deployment Pipeline

~ All backend changes are committed to Bitbucket, built into Docker images, and stored in the Elastic Container Registry.
~ Deployment to AWS is done with a few clicks, minimizing downtime and manual effort.

• Future EHR Integration with HAPI FHIR

~ Designed future architecture to support integration with EPIC electronic health records.
~ Evaluating the HAPI FHIR library, an open-source implementation of the FHIR standard, to retrieve patient-specific survivorship care plans.
~ Goal: Tailor app content based on individual medical histories for even more personalized support.

Outcomes:

With the enhanced MYH app, Radiant aims to empower young adult cancer survivors by:

Conclusion:

Managing Your Health is more than just an app—it’s a lifeline for young adult cancer survivors transitioning into independence. By blending personalized education, engaging design, and technological innovation, Radiant and CINJ are redefining how survivorship care is delivered. This next-generation intervention has the potential to transform survivorship outcomes for thousands across the country.

It’s not just about managing health—it’s about feeling supported every step of the way.