Work packages

WP1 entails all aspects of the coordination, management and progress monitoring of the project. The lead partner of WP1 (EMC) has experience with coordinating EC-funded projects and is acquainted with the efforts to successfully complete such a large-scale project. EMC has longstanding partnerships with many of the participants in 4D PICTURE, ensuring smooth cooperation and management.

The overall objective of WP2 is to develop algorithms that provide predictions of outcome for individual patients for each relevant treatment option for 3 major cancers. The algorithms will be translated into decision support tools and included in the MetroMap as developed in WP4.

The main aim of WP3 is to use co-design methods to investigate the experiences of cancer patients and their significant others, drawing upon novel text mining and qualitative analysis methodologies, to improve outcomes for cancer patients and their families and enhance the quality of a conversation tool to be used by citizens, cancer patients and clinicians across Europe.

The primary task of WP4 is the redesign of care path applying the service design method to experience a more individualised and personalised care path with the inclusion of innovative prognostic and conversational tools.

In WP5 we will evaluate MetroMapping in its entirety with mixed-methods designs, as well as evaluate the decision support tools to be developed. For all evaluations involving patients, we will develop protocols, including Patient Information Forms and Consent Forms, to obtain ethical (Institutional Review Board) approval. We will obtain informed consent from all patients, in seven countries (Netherlands, Spain, Denmark, Germany, Sweden, Slovenia, and UK).

Work package 6 aims to finalise the MetroMapping methodology, assess the generalisability of the methodology and decision-support tools of MetroMapping and to provide guidance to policy-makers about MetroMapping.

WP7 is a cross-cutting, integrative work package that establishes an embedded ethics approach within 4D PICTURE. It collaborates with all work packages and aims to ensure that ethical and social aspects of the planned tools, and implications of their use, are considered from the very start of their interdisciplinary development. In addition to scholarly publications, WP7 will produce training materials, dissemination materials and practice and policy guidance/recommendations.

The task of WP8 is to disseminate project information, results of the research and innovation activities to key stakeholders through various channels and to enable access to decision-support tools to cancer patients, their significant others, clinicians, and the public.