The accreditation committee of the European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association/European Renal Care Association (EDTNA/ERCA) approved the patient education tool called “Phosphorus Mission”, granting it a three-year accreditation status.
EDTNA/ERCA describes Phosphorus Mission as an “excellent resource for the nephrology nurse” and “very good teaching and learning aid for patients” in its accreditation letter.
The committee highlighted a number of evaluation criteria for Phosphorus Mission, including inter-activity, judging it as “highly interactive and engaging and could be used by all age groups including patients, carers and extended family”, and it recommended the mobile application also as a “supplement in patient education groups”. Other elements that counted favourably for the assessors included the fact that the tool is based on a user-friendly technology combining a gaming concept, a fun activity, with a serious message.
Phosphorus Mission is available in a number of countries including France, Sweden, Singapore, Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Kazakhstan, South Africa, and India, with more to come. To meet patients’ needs around the world, the app was customised to integrate a broad variety of dietary habits including those in Asia, India and the Middle East.
Phosphorus Mission
Phosphorus Mission is a patient education programme that comes as a mobile application designed and developed by Sanofi together with patients and caregivers for people with advanced chronic kidney disease. Educational and entertaining, the programme aims at helping patients better understand chronic kidney disease, treatment options, and dietary choices.
The input gathered from patients and healthcare professionals throughout all stages of the development of this patient education programme – from concept, to development, testing and launch – has contributed to the acceptance the programme has achieved today, which includes the accreditation through the nurses associations EDTNA/ERCA. Phosphorus Mission explains to a patient how one may better handle situations which are complex, such as a dialysis, helping the patient understand the role of minerals, consumed with the daily nutrition, on overall clinical condition and therapy. Phosphorus Mission is designed to enable patients to assimilate essential information on chronic kidney disease, the impact of food choices, as well as the role of prescribed treatments.
An innovative tool
Phosphorus Mission was presented for the first time in September 2013 in Sweden at the conference of the European Dialysis and Transplant Nurses Association (EDTNA), an organisation of nurses and nursing dialysis specialists. As an innovative e-health tool, Phosphorus Mission is considered to respond to an unmet need in the treatment of dialysis patients. Already available in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, South Africa and France (Mission Phosphore), the game can be downloaded for use on both tablets and smartphones.
Mission-based gaming – how does it work?
As a dialysis patient engages in a “mission”, the patient is then informed on the amount of certain ingredients (phosphorus) contained in his meal and that he might no longer eliminate due to kidney failure. He is then invited to engage in a gameplay where he can target and eliminate excess minerals before they hazardously build-up in his body. To gain bonuses, the player is submitted to a quiz covering information critical in the management of the disease. The gameplay includes 16 levels of escalating difficulty engrained with an escalating level of phosphorus-rich food. As the patient continues to play, he can gain knowledge of potentially dangerous minerals contained in excess in daily meals, which may help the person adopt healthier dietary choices. In addition, the tool provides support for a compliant attitude towards prescribed medications. Phosphorus Mission also includes libraries with information (salt, potassium, proteins and more) for users who want to learn without gaming.
