How Two Teen Founders Built Soothe Note to Help Cancer Patients Navigate Life Between Appointments

Cancer care does not stop when a patient leaves the hospital.

Between oncology appointments, patients and caregivers are often trying to keep track of symptoms, medications, energy levels, questions for doctors, and the everyday realities of treatment. Much of that information can become scattered, forgotten, or difficult to reconstruct weeks later.

That experience led high school students Teddy Aaron and Brynn to co-found Soothe Note, a free digital tool designed to help cancer patients and caregivers organize what happens between medical appointments.

Brynn experienced that challenge firsthand after being diagnosed with stage 3 germ cell ovarian cancer at 15, undergoing surgeries and chemotherapy, entering remission, and later facing a recurrence. Teddy came to the problem from the caregiver side after a close family member was diagnosed with cancer.

Together, they are building Soothe Note around a simple idea: give patients and caregivers a calmer, more organized way to navigate treatment without trying to replace medical professionals or clinical care.

In this Causeartist Spotlight, Brynn shares how their personal experiences shaped the product, why the time between appointments remains an overlooked part of cancer care, and how the founders are thinking about privacy, accessibility, and building a responsible health technology company while still in high school.

Q: Both of you came to Soothe Note from very different sides of cancer care. What experiences made you realize something like Soothe Note needed to exist?

A: I was diagnosed with stage 3 germ cell ovarian cancer at 15. I went through surgeries and chemotherapy, entered remission, and then faced a recurrence during my junior year.

During treatment, there were so many symptoms, medications, and questions to remember that important details could easily be forgotten before an appointment.

Teddy understood the same problem from the caregiver side after a close family member was diagnosed. When he showed me Soothe Note, it immediately made sense.

We were experiencing the same challenges from different sides and wanted to build something we wished we had.

Q: What was happening between oncology appointments that existing tools were not solving well enough?

A: The hardest parts of treatment often happen at home.

I might wake up feeling nauseous or exhausted, but by the time I saw my oncologist weeks later, I would not always remember exactly when it happened or how often.

Patient portals organize clinical information, but they do not capture everything patients experience between visits. Notes also become scattered across different places.

Soothe Note gives patients and caregivers one calm place to record what changes as it happens.

Q: How does someone use Soothe Note during a typical week of treatment?

A: A patient can complete a short daily check-in covering mood, energy, medications, hydration, meals, rest, movement, and one small win.

They can also log symptoms, body locations, appointments, medications, and questions for their doctor.

Before an appointment, Soothe Note organizes that information into a report the patient can review or share with their care team.

Patients can also connect a trusted caregiver through a sharing code. That caregiver can see selected updates without repeatedly asking the patient how they are feeling.

Q: How did your experiences influence the product's design?

A: Our main design question is, “Would this still feel okay on a hard day?”

During treatment, the last thing I wanted was another complicated task. Soothe Note lets patients complete a quick check-in, skip what does not matter that day, and return whenever they are ready.

Control was also important to me because cancer can take away so much of it.

Patients decide whether to connect a caregiver and can revoke access at any time. Caregivers stay informed without making the patient feel watched or micromanaged, while private journal entries remain private.

Q: What have you learned from cancer programs and support organizations?

A: These conversations have confirmed that the space between appointments is a real gap.

Patients need a simple way to remember what changed, and caregivers need a way to help without adding pressure.

Other adolescent and young adult patients have told me that Soothe Note addresses something that has been missing from their lives.

Organizations are especially interested in appointment preparation, caregiver involvement, privacy, and making the product simple enough to use during treatment.

Q: How are you thinking about the long-term business model while keeping Soothe Note accessible?

A: We believe you cannot put a paywall on cancer. The essential patient and caregiver experience should remain free.

We are exploring optional extended features through Soothe Note Plus, along with grants and partnerships that could support our growth.

However, we will not build the business by selling health information or introducing advertising.

Our model is still developing, but accessibility and patient trust are non-negotiable.

Q: How are you approaching privacy, security, and medical boundaries?

A: Soothe Note is an organization and support tool, not medical care.

It does not diagnose, recommend treatment, or replace a doctor. Its reports are based only on information entered by the patient, not hospital records.

The app is ad-free and does not sell personal or health information. Information is encrypted, patients control caregiver access, and users can export or delete their data.

AI-assisted summaries must be reviewed before being used because they may contain mistakes. Their purpose is to help patients prepare for conversations with their clinicians, not make medical decisions.

Q: What has been difficult about becoming founders so early, and where has your age helped?

A: The hardest part has been building something with real responsibility while still balancing high school.

We are working with sensitive information, so being young cannot be an excuse for getting privacy, security, or medical boundaries wrong.

Our age has also helped.

I went through treatment while trying to keep up with school, friendships, and normal teenage life. That gives us a close understanding of what younger patients experience.

We are also willing to question why healthcare technology often feels complicated and build something calmer around what patients actually need.

Q: If Soothe Note succeeds at scale, what changes five years from now?

A: I want patients to stop relying entirely on memory during one of the hardest periods of their lives.

They should be able to enter an appointment with a clear record of what changed and the questions they wanted to ask.

I also want caregivers to stay informed without hovering or repeatedly asking the patient to talk about cancer.

Our goal is not to replace clinicians. It is to reduce the pressure between appointments and give patients and families more clarity and control in a situation that often feels uncontrollable.

Q: Building Around the Patient Experience

A: What makes Soothe Note notable is not simply that its founders are teenagers building a healthcare technology product.

The company grew from two firsthand perspectives on the same problem: what patients and caregivers experience when they leave the treatment room and return to everyday life.

Rather than attempting to replace clinical systems, Soothe Note is focused on the overlooked layer between appointments, helping patients document their experiences, prepare better questions, communicate with caregivers, and maintain more control over their own information.

For Teddy and Brynn, maintaining that trust as the platform grows appears to be just as important as adding new functionality.

Learn more about Soothe Note at soothenote.com.