Gold Award Winner- Superhero Me!

We learn more about the creators of Superhero Me from Life Healthcare and why they entered the Mobile Health Competition

Name: Marianne Lynch and Dimuthu Jayawardana
Age: Marianne: 28, Dimuthu: 24
Country: UK

What do you do?

Marianne is an Art Director and Dimuthu is a Copywriter at Life Healthcare Communications, a creative agency based in Windsor, Berkshire.

What made you enter the mobile health competition?

Having seen the competition on the eyeforpharma twitter feed, we were keen to enter. It seemed like a rare opportunity to design the best app we possibly could, with relatively few restrictions, for a very worthwhile purpose.

Smartphones and apps are incredibly popular now, but we felt there still wasn’t a patient directed app that made the most of their technological capabilities. From very simple to complex features, the advantage of the smartphone is that almost anything is possible. So, the opportunity was there to design an app that would not only use the latest technology, but would do so in a way that would help patients with their everyday lives.

How did you come up with your idea?

We began by consulting the head of our Digital department, Faisal Ahmed, for initial guidance/direction. We then asked ourselves:

• If we were teenage cancer sufferers, what would we want from an app?
• What would we be using our phones for?
• In an ideal world, what functions would this app have to help our day-to-day lives?

Why do you think teenage cancer patients will benefit from it?
To some people, a phone is more like a companion; there from the second you wake up to when you go to sleep at night. That’s why the objective of our app was to create an environment for the user to have fun whenever they wanted, wherever they are. We wanted them to immerse themselves in another world at any time, and be able to reflect their own moods/feelings and personalities within the app. We didn’t want to make an app that focused on them as a “cancer sufferer” but wanted to help them re-affirm their own personalities and their identities as individuals.

How would you feel about winning?

It would be absolutely A-MA-ZING if Superhero Me! won the competition. We genuinely believe that this app would make a significant difference to the lives of young cancer sufferers, and we’d love to be involved with developing the app through to the final product. As we work for a healthcare advertising agency, we would also be able to use some of the resources available at Life to develop the app.

If you don’t win, which entry would you like to see win & why?

If we don’t win, the app we’d like to see developed is “Positive Vibes”. We think this app is closest to ours in terms of patient support (through the loop) and would really help patients have a voice and meet other people like them. The only element we feel is missing in “Positive Vibes” is the “fun factor” which would help distract or entertain the user, or simply appeal to the teenage audience.

Do you have an idea which cancer charity you would donate your $5,000 prize money to?
We are both monthly contributors to Cancer Research UK, and would love to help further their research with this donation.

What are your plans for the future?
Working on Superhero Me! has really opened our eyes to what digital technology can do for patients in terms of support, communication and entertainment. We’d love to continue working on projects like this to make sure the latest technology is being used to help patients and/or carers as much as possible.