iThrive Beyond Skin Cancer

iThrive-Skin is a mobile app to address fear of cancer recurrence through a series of customized cognitive exercises.

After a cancer diagnosis, people may interpret their worlds in a different way, particularly when they are not sure what a situation or symptom might mean. They are often told to contact their medical team when they start to experience certain symptoms and given the message that these might be cause for concern. However, even after the treatment has ended, many cancer survivors continue to interpret physical symptoms and different situations as threatening, worried that they might be a sign of their cancer coming back. Some level of worry is normal and helpful as it is important to be aware of potential signs of recurrence. However, for some survivors, this worry can take over and prevent them from engaging fully in their lives.

iThrive-Skin is designed to reduce fear of cancer recurrence by retraining certain thinking patterns so that survivors can develop new, helpful mental habits. It does this through repeated practice of alternative interpretations of situations that are personally anxiety-provoking. Promoting a new way of thinking requires many practice trials, which helps these mental habits become more natural and automatic -- that’s why exercises offered through iThrive-Skin involve repetition.

To obtain best results from iThrive-Skin, after completing the personalization items, follow your individual session schedule. You can set up reminders through the app to help ensure you complete the exercises as scheduled.

iThrive-Skin uses Apple's ResearchKit API which integrates with Apple's Health Kit to run an Active Task. However iThrive-Skin does NOT access any user health data from the device. iThrive-Skin does collect response time to stimuli as part of the research trial which users have consented too.