- by croatiaweek
- July 11, 2026
-
in
News
(Photo: Illustration)
ZAGREB, 11 July (Hina) – The Zagreb Children’s Hospital has introduced a digital passport for people treated for cancer in childhood and adolescence, marking a significant step forward in long-term care for this growing group of survivors, the hospital said on Thursday.
The Survivor Passport (SurPass) will enable personalised lifelong follow-up in line with European guidelines and improve continuity of healthcare. Thanks to advances in diagnosis and treatment, more than 80 percent of children with cancer now reach adulthood.
At the same time, more than two-thirds of survivors develop late effects of treatment during their lifetime, some of which can be serious and significantly affect their quality of life. These complications can affect almost any organ system, making individual risk assessment, early detection and lifelong monitoring essential components of modern survivor care.
The digital survivor passport is a personalised electronic record that brings together information on a patient’s diagnosis and treatment. Based on internationally recognised guidelines, it assesses the risk of late effects and generates individualised recommendations for further monitoring.
It provides easy access to key information for both survivors and the primary care doctors and specialists involved in their care.
The passport is designed to improve continuity of care during the transition from paediatric to adult healthcare, reduce the risk of losing important treatment information and support timely, informed clinical decisions. It also gives survivors clearer insight into their health status and follow-up recommendations, encouraging them to take an active role in managing their long-term health.
The digital passport is being introduced as part of the international e-QuoL project, funded under the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
The project brings together 32 partners from 16 European countries to develop and implement innovative e-health solutions aimed at improving the quality of life of people treated for cancer in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, as well as their families.
The Zagreb Children’s Hospital is one of the project partners and leads a segment focused on the ethical and social challenges of implementing e-health tools. Jelena Roganović, head of the Croatian part of the e-QuoL project, is a European expert on late effects of childhood and adolescent cancer treatment and Croatia’s national coordinator for implementing the digital passport.
By introducing SurPass, the Zagreb Children’s Hospital is further developing modern long-term care for childhood cancer survivors and contributing to the goals of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, in which survivors’ quality of life and long-term follow-up are gaining increasing importance, the hospital said.
