Most Cancer Patients Forget or Misunderstand What They Hear in the Exam Room. HITLAB and MyCareGorithm Are Partnering to Prove a Better Way
The collaboration will produce an independently evaluated evidence base and peer-reviewed white paper supporting U.S. growth for the FDA-cleared autonomic nervous system diagnostic
NEW YORK, NY — August 12, 2026 — A cancer diagnosis conversation is one of the most consequential a person will ever have — and one of the hardest to absorb. To close the gap between what care teams explain and what patients actually understand, HITLAB, the health innovation and technology organization, today announced a research partnership with MyCareGorithm, developer of a digital consultation platform that turns complex oncology conversations into visual, multimedia experiences patients and caregivers can follow, revisit, and act on.
HITLAB will independently evaluate the platform in real-world oncology settings, generating the clinical, operational, and economic evidence needed to support its adoption across cancer centers and health systems — and to advance a more patient-centered standard of cancer communication.
The Communication Gap in Cancer Care
Research on health literacy consistently finds that patients retain only a fraction of the information delivered in medical consultations — and oncology visits, dense with staging terminology, treatment trade-offs, and emotional weight, are among the most difficult in medicine. According to Kessels’s widely-cited 2003 research on patient memory, patients forget 40-80% of medical information.
At the same time, oncologists face mounting documentation burden, shrinking consultation time, and well-documented burnout. Tools that promise to improve patient communication must prove they do so without adding to clinician workload — which is precisely the question this partnership is designed to answer with independent evidence.
About The Study
HITLAB will lead study design, clinical validation, participant recruitment, data collection, and analysis. The research will measure the platform’s effect on:
- Patient understanding and engagement — how well patients and caregivers comprehend diagnosis, staging, and treatment options, and how confident they feel participating in decisions about their care;
Shared decision-making — whether visual, guideline-aligned consultations measurably reduce decision conflict and improve the consultation experience;
Provider workflow — the platform’s impact on consultation efficiency and care team workload.
Built by a Cancer Specialist and a Patient
MyCareGorithm was founded by a cancer specialist and a patient who shared a conviction: no one should leave a diagnosis conversation more scared and more confused than when they walked in. Developed with a faculty of oncology experts from major centers around the country, the platform lets care teams visually walk patients through their diagnosis, staging, and treatment options, including clinical trial opportunities, and multimedia resources. And all the rich visual and video library content is available to the patient online, at home, after the consultation, to share with loved ones and review in detail.
“I learned early in my career as a radiation oncologist, that just talking to patients was totally inadequate if I cared about their true understanding of their situation, their ability to trust their care team and their preparedness to make quick and effective decisions about their treatment. I saw their blank stares and the fear in their eyes and realized that something needed to be done to fix this.” The process failed-— not because their care team failed them, but because the traditional consultation was never built for how people learn and absorb life-changing information,” said Dr. Louis Harrison, MD, FASTRO, Co-Founder, President & Chief Executive Officer of MyCareGorithm. “Partnering with HITLAB gives us the independent validation to show this platform doesn’t just improve the patient experience — it measurably improves outcomes and efficiency for care teams. That evidence will be foundational as we bring this standard of communication to more patients, cancer centers and health systems.”
“Cancer patients deserve to leave every consultation understanding exactly what they’re facing and what comes next, and their care teams deserve tools that make that possible without adding to an already demanding workload,” said Dr. Stan Kachnowski, Chair of HITLAB. “This partnership reflects why HITLAB exists: to put emerging technologies through the kind of independent, rigorous evaluation that gives health systems confidence to adopt what actually works.”
Learn More about
MyCareGorithm
MyCareGorithm was founded by a cancer specialist and a patient with a shared goal: replacing the confusion of a traditional cancer diagnosis conversation with a visual, multimedia consultation experience. Developed alongside oncology specialists and aligned with clinical guidelines, the platform helps care teams walk patients through diagnosis, staging, and treatment options with greater clarity and confidence.
About HITLAB
HITLAB accelerates the development and diffusion of the most impactful technologies to improve healthcare outcomes for those in need. Through rigorous evaluation and independent verification of digital health technologies, HITLAB generates evidence and educates the healthcare ecosystem through research, seminars, conferences, and webinars, including the HITLAB Innovators Summit, Women’s Health Tech Initiative, NYC Health Innovation Week, and the Breakthrough Alliance. HITLAB envisions a healthcare system that is more efficient and equitable, where evidence-based digital health technologies improve patient satisfaction, enhance clinical outcomes, reduce provider burden, and lower costs.
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