Father of Young Cancer Survivor Set Up Virtual Guide App to Help Sick Kids
Learning more about one's disease can help patients fight their ailment, a father of a cancer survivor discovered.
Dom Raban's daughter Issy was diagnosed with a rare form of bone cancer six years ago, and the lack of information about her disease left the 13-year-old devastated. Now that his daughter is already cancer-free, Raban decided to come up with a solution to help other young patients deal with their disease.
In a statement that was reported by Positive News, Raban said that most people who were told that they have a disease normally turn to the Internet to know more about the ailment. But most of the time, search engines are filled with a lot of frightening and sometimes inaccurate information.
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This happened to his daughter Issy, who felt desperate when she learned from her online research that she only has a 20 percent chance of survival after being diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in November 2011.
While Issy is now cancer-free, Raban said that his daughter no longer trusts the health service. That is why he was inspired to come up with an app called the Patient's Virtual Guide to help inform the young patients who are also dealing with the same situation.
The app, developed by Raban's digital agency Corporation Pop, utilizes games, graphics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and texts that were written by medical experts to guide patients in the app's virtual hospital where they learn more about their condition. It will also give them more information about the equipment that they might encounter during their treatments.
"It's about communicating health information in a way that makes children feel engaged with the treatment they are receiving," Raban stated. "Evidence suggests that if you put information in the hands of patients, they experience reduced stress and anxiety, which can lead to better clinical outcomes," he added.
