Challenge

Cancer survivorship presents complex challenges, especially for Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) patients navigating life transitions, treatment fatigue, and shifting care needs. Traditional portals and health content often fail to resonate with this demographic, leading to disengagement and a loss of connection to essential guidance and follow-up care. CHoP needed a solution that could drive sustained engagement without adding strain to internal IT systems or requiring excessive clinician oversight.

Solution

Agency 39A designed and developed REACH, a progressive web app (PWA) co-created with AYAs and clinical research teams. Built on a composable CMS and custom database, REACH operates independently from CHoP’s core IT infrastructure, giving researchers with flexibility and speed while maintaining full HIPAA compliance. The platform delivers tailored content and experiences based on each user’s diagnosis, treatment phase, location, and care milestones.

Key elements included:

• UX and brand design specific to AYA sensibilities, tone, and motivation patterns
• SMS decision trees to support multichannel engagement and retention
• Custom reward strategies to incentivize longitudinal participation
• Integration with OncoLink’s SmartALACC platform to deliver personalized educational content
• Modular infrastructure allowing content updates and feature expansion without code changes
• HIPAA-compliant analytics via Matomo for outcome tracking and iteration

Results

The REACH PWA enabled CHoP to launch a high-touch digital survivorship experience without burdening internal IT teams. AYA participants receive content and reminders aligned to their clinical path, improving adherence and re-engagement rates. Clinical teams benefit from centralized oversight, secure data flows, and scalable infrastructure that supports ongoing research and longitudinal outcomes tracking. The platform now serves as a model for next-generation survivorship engagement across pediatric and AYA oncology.