Shara Ranasinghe

*”Thanks to your overwhelming support I have exceeded my original funding goal. I cannot believe it and am so grateful. Any money that I receive above and beyond this will go towards stage one of an app I wish to develop that will further enhance communication and cancer patient care. See below for more information.” - Shara

“How are you… You’ll be fine… We understand what you're going through.” These are platitudes and phrases we use regularly to those experiencing challenges, but to a cancer patient, they’re some of the worst things you could possibly say. (“How am I? I’m fighting for my life. I’ll be fine? You don’t know that. Understand? You couldn’t possibly.”)

For a cancer patient already burdened with the trauma of treatment, patient-centred communication (PCC) is an area that often ends up highly compromised. In Australia, there's a high level of PCC dissatisfaction, despite the many number of support groups currently available. This research project aims to better understand why patients are unhappy with the service they're getting and to explore in depth the complex communication lines between patient, health professional and carer and the problems each face, to ascertain what support each need to work more harmoniously together.

The Background

Ten years ago, Shara Ranasinghe became a cancer patient at the age of 22 and experienced first-hand the communication problems between herself and those taking care of her – from family members who didn’t want to discuss her condition, to doctors who would tell her she “didn’t need to know” the details of her treatment.

Once in remission, Shara felt that while medical breakthroughs and cancer cures could take years or decades, something that could be more easily resolved or supported was “understanding the human being who's going through it”.

A communications lecturer who’s both studied the subject and worked in the industry, Shara decided to combine her communications knowledge with her first-hand experience as a cancer patient to research the issues involved not just with the patient, but between patient and doctor, patient and carer, and the carer and doctor.

“If these three don't work together, then we're not doing justice to the patient,” explains Shara, who says her PCC research will also look at the levels of self-care required by the health professionals and carers themselves. 

“My ultimate goal is to have a patient-centred communication centre in each major hospital,” she says, “so there’s a section where the patients can come in and talk, but also a section for health professionals and a section for carers to come in and get advice too.”

Pitch For Funds

The University of Canberra recently held an event called Pitch for Funds, in which 17 researchers pitched their research ideas for a chance to win a share of $7,000 in prize money. Shara’s resonating pitch raised $1,571.88 but she needs $3,000 in total to assist her project so please give generously.

The funds will mostly go to travelling expenses, as Shara travels the country to speak with cancer patients, carers and health professionals about these sensitive issues face to face. After publishing her findings, Shara hopes to present them at conferences to inform the right individuals and move towards reaching her ultimate goal. She already has one planned for next year at the 13th Behavioural Research in Cancer Control Conference in Melbourne.

How The Additional Funding Will Be Used

Having reached her fundraising goal, any additional funds Shara receives will go towards the development of an app in the form of a diary system/journal which allows for input from not just the cancer patient, but their carer and health professional.

For the individual, the app will allow them to track and log their experience and emotional state, with functions including a mood-meter, daily medicine and food intake plans, platforms to access information about their type of cancer and most importantly, an area they can flag certain thoughts or issues to share with their health professional and/or carer.

The patient’s carer will also have a daily page to log into and flag any issues or queries with the patient’s health professional, while being kept abreast of the individual’s daily moods, medicines, food plans and thoughts and also being able to access information on the patient’s specific cancer.

The health professional will then have instant access at any consultation to the patient’s progress, lines of treatment and any queries, thoughts or issues of either the patient or carer, allowing for greater communication and more impactful support. This would be the first app of its kind in which the health professional would be connected and aligned with the patient and carer simultaneously.

Change always brings challenges, but this cause is worth fighting for!