Corporation Pop has been awarded £50k of funding to develop an augmented reality hospital app.
The Manchester digital agency received the cash from the Nominet Trust, to create a mobile app which accompanies young patients through a hospital system – helping to improve the patient experience by providing relevant information at every point of the journey.
“This is a very personal project for me. In 2011 my then 13 year old daughter was diagnosed with cancer. Her journey through the NHS system was characterised by a lack of information at every stage of the process which left her with a deep mistrust of the medical system,” explained Dom Raban, Corporation Pop’s managing director.
“Thankfully my daughter will soon be celebrating five years cancer free but her experience left me wanting to use my professional capability to respond to the problem and find a technology solution that could meet the information needs of young people about to embark on an often traumatic and stressful hospital journey. With this fantastic support from Nominet Trust we can now begin the next crucial stage of development.”
More than 2m children are admitted to NHS hospitals every year, and research suggests that reducing stress and anxiety about their treatment and surroundings can lead to quicker recovery and improved clinical outcomes.
The Patient’s Virtual Guide uses an avatar to help the child through the system. Using gamification, augmented reality and artificial intelligence the app is intended to be a “friendly ally” to help demystify the process.
“I have yet to show this pilot app to anyone, of any age, who has not positively engaged with it, suggesting that, this technology has the potential to greatly improve the healthcare experience for people of all ages across the NHS (and beyond),” said Peter-Marc Fortune, associate clinical head at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (and Corporation Pop’s clinical consultant).
The company has been developing the project for almost 2 years and last year received funding from NHS technology network, TITCH. This latest funding round should help them move closer to bringing the app to market.
