UpSMART: five years of digital innovation in cancer clinical research—achievements, challenges, and recommendations
UpSMART, a research programme involving 24 European cancer centres, aimed to promote digital innovation in early-phase clinical research addressing challenges in recruitment, data collection and analysis. Several open-source digital healthcare products (DHPs) were developed through UpSMART, including eTARGET and trialFinder for trial matching, and PROACT 2.0 for patient-reported data. Lessons learned highlight the importance of multidisciplinary teams, sustainable funding and deployment, and engagement with the research community to maximise impact.
Authors
- G. Pretelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5550-1211)
- Christopher Grave
- Filippo de Braud (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0103-730X)
- Luca Agnelli (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0582-6170)
- Harriet Unsworth (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1427-6783)
- Paul O’Regan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0231-5028)
- Hannah Frost (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4398-0382)
- Donna M. Graham (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6500-8140)
- Fouziah Butt
- Louise Carter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9854-2304)
- Caroline Dive (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1726-8850)
- Malik Shahzad Shabbir (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1393-2897)
- Anja Le Blanc
- Laura Stephenson
- Silvia Damian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9560-1092)
- Richard Hoskins
- Subir Singh
- Akshita Patil
- Andrea Villa (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6319-0684)
- Elena Garralda
- Dilan Eken
Institutions
- Hebron University (PS)
- University of Milan (IT)
- University of Manchester (GB)
- Vall d'Hebron Institut de Recerca (ES)
- Vall d'Hebron Hospital Universitari (ES)
- Cancer Research UK Manchester Institute (GB)
- The Christie NHS Foundation Trust (GB)
- CIBBIM-Nanomedicine (ES)
- Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (IT)
- National Computing Centre (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Idiap Research Institute (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Frontiers in Digital Health
- Published
- 2025-11-27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1708067
- Primary Topic
- Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- Cancer Research UK
- National Institute for Health and Care Research
- Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro
- Manchester Biomedical Research Centre