Roche: Cancer Lan Pya, a Guide for Patients and Carers

A cancer diagnosis in Myanmar often lands on families with little plain-language guidance. Information about diagnosis, prescriptions and medical terminology is scattered, technical and frequently in English, and patients and caregivers are left to piece it together at a stressful moment.

Roche Myanmar wanted to support this community with a single trusted source that people could reach without downloading an app or visiting a website. The task was to make credible information genuinely accessible, in Burmese, on the channel people already use every day.

The strategic choice was to go where the audience already is. Facebook and Messenger have the largest user base in Myanmar, so a conversational bot on Messenger removed the friction of a new platform and met people in a familiar, private space.

Ruder Finn Era designed and built Cancer Lan Pya (Cancer Guide), an informational chatbot with a simple menu-driven, conversational interface that lets users move quickly to what they need: how a diagnosis works, what prescriptions mean, and definitions of medical terms. Content was structured so that a caregiver could find an answer in a few taps.

Because users opt in as subscribers, the bot also became a broadcast channel for important announcements, giving Roche an ongoing way to keep the cancer care community informed.