AskEllyn and the City Cancer Challenge (C/Can)
Bringing AskEllyn to a World in Need
Navigating cancer care often involves multiple facilities and providers, creating significant barriers for patients. These challenges are particularly acute in Low to Middle-Income Countries where fragmented healthcare systems lack adequate support for patient journeys.
AskEllyn is one of 11 digital solutions hand-selected by City Cancer Challenge (C/Can) for inclusion in its new Digital Health Library. Every solution was vetted by a specialised taskforce of digital health experts via a thorough application process. Each solution is designed to ease patient navigation, ensure timely access to care and improve outcomes in resource-limited settings.
What is AskEllyn?
AskEllyn is the world’s first AI companion for those impacted by breast cancer, including patients and caregivers. Her unique form of digital support blends OpenAI’s knowledge of the world with the lived experience and wisdom of a breast cancer survivor, Ellyn Winters-Robinson.
Infused with the lived experience, knowledge and wisdom of a fellow survivor, AskEllyn provides that all-important emotional support patients and their caregivers long for, but may not know how or where to access. Available at any time of day and in every language, AskEllyn is an empathetic “digital hand to hold” for patients and their families and friends — from initial diagnosis through to life after active treatment ends.
Non-Medical
AskEllyn’s role is as an empathetic companion and friend to those dealing with a diagnosis. You can ask her medical questions, but she will always recommend the user back to their care team.
Always Kind and Supportive
AskEllyn is non-judgemental, always kind and always supportive and dignified in her answers.
Always Available
AskEllyn is there at 2 am when your heart and your mind is racing. She never sleeps, never takes a vacation. No app to download, no registration required to use. And she will always be free for those who need her most.
Omni-Lingual
Simply begin chatting with AskEllyn in your native language and she will respond in kind. She speaks most languages in the world flawlessly.
Integrating AskEllyn into Your City’s Patient Navigation Ecosystem as a Resource Navigator
Newly diagnosed patients are dealing with the trauma of a diagnosis and frequently suffer from information overload. They are overwhelmed and afraid. They may not even know what information they need
AskEllyn is there to offer up just the right information at the right time, based on the question asked.
Customize Her Knowledge to Your City, Your Healthcare System
In partnership with your team, AskEllyn’s knowledge can be customized to make her City and healthcare system aware. This means as resource navigator, she is not just there to comfort, support and answer questions. She can also help navigate patients and caregivers to the exact resources they need at just the right moment to improve the patient experience, increase awareness of available services and improve uptake of those resources.
Easily Deployed
AskEllyn is an embeddable web object so can be easily and quickly deployed into web-based environments i.e. care and patient portals, provider or government websites.
Secure and Private
AskEllyn requires no registration, captures no personal information from the end user, and even questions asked are anonymized and stripped of any identifiable personal information.
Behavioral Insights
Through the power of conversational care, AskEllyn can unlock new and exciting insights into patient and caregiver information needs, preferences providing you with a granular understanding into what patients and caregivers are thinking and how they are feeling.