Silver Award winner Adebusuyi Adeyemi

We learn more about Adebusuyi and why he entered the Mobile Health Competition

Name: Adebusuyi Adeyemi

Age: 24

Country: London, UK

What do you do?: Providing insights to pharma companies in the oncology drug market as an analyst at IMS Health. I also tell knock-knock jokes.

What made you enter the mobile health competition? Though the mHealth market is in an embryonic state, the market potential is huge given the overall worldwide healthcare market size and the potential uses and benefits for mobile patient healthcare support.

Internet on your mobile is a new consumer utility alongside electricity and water. Loads of people accessing this new utility are patients and families taking care of themselves or loved ones. They are the largest and most important group of healthcare workers. We need to re-think how technology can be used to support patients, particularly young people, and think about offering creative ways for health professionals to deliver patient-centred care.

Working with numbers, charts and treatment algorithms all day is genuinely fun, but I wanted to help create something that day-to-day, could help teenage cancer patients manage and understand their symptoms more effectively. AAA* Health [pronounced “triple-A-Star-Health”] is a team of young pharma professionals who are thinking up innovative and creative ways to help patients around the world. I’m part of them and thought this was something that could be good for us to get involved in.

How did you come up with your idea?

I was on vacation in Germany and was using an [augmented-reality] app to get more information about the sights I was seeing. An elderly woman came up to me and we chatted about how useful the technology was and its potential uses elsewhere. Given my passion for all things healthcare, I immediately thought of a link between the two and think AAAKTIE would be a cool way to support and connect teenage cancer patients around the world.

Why do you think teenage cancer patients will benefit from it? Teenage cancer patients have a lot of anxieties & fears about their diagnosis and treatment. Being able to communicate with other people in similar situations can help them overcome it. Having cancer is a journey and finding meaning to experiences is something I know a lot of teenage cancer patients desire. They want complete and honest information about their treatments and what better way than to get it from each other? Teenagers trust other teenagers. They can learn from each other whilst expressing themselves. Hopefully, healthcare professionals can learn from them too and provide better care. I’m also hopeful this would allow pharma companies to connect with custom- sorry, I mean patients! and allow for meaningful relationships between companies and patients that the 21st century’s been crying out for!

Methods of sharing experiences do already exist e.g. JimmyteensTV etc... but there doesn’t appear to be anything for mobile phone users out there....yet J.Any of the short-listed ideas in this competition will achieve that I think, I’m just honoured AAKKTIE has been voted so highly.

How would you feel about winning? Pretty pleased with myself. So much so, I would have two bowls of Frosted Shreddies in celebration, rather than just one. Yeah, I know... living dangerously. But, I would also feel honoured to have been entrusted by the healthcare community to help deliver something really beneficial to teenage cancer patients around the world.

If you don’t win, which entry would you like to see win & why? I’m a sore loser. I would trust that if I didn’t win, the winning idea was a more feasible idea or would benefit teenage patients better, so as long as young cancer patients benefit, I’m genuinely happy.

Do you have an idea which cancer charity you would donate your $5,000 prize money to? The Teenage Cancer Trust

What are your plans for the future? To continue addressing and solving healthcare problems around the world to the best of my capabilities, in whichever form(s) I can. And to get my sister acting lessons!