Feelix

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  App screens

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  Customer "patient" journey

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  Business canvas

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  Value proposition canvas

Inspiration

When life throws a curveball you're never prepared. You just visit a doctor since you have symptoms of a disease. When she delivers negative news and leaves you to unknowingness then anxiety sets in. You try to control it but it builds up as you continue the process (lab tests, samples, biopsies, etc). You move to a second stage where you need to have a procedure done. Anxiety keeps lurking in the corner. You keep meeting people only once, who are in charge of your care. You don´t know what to do and who to reach out to.They will just give you a date and a place where you will have a surgery. Nothing else. Now you are evidently anxious. You can only talk with your partner, who tries to give you some comfort and make you feel better. Although your partner tries to put themselves in your shoes, he has never gone through experience like that. On top of it all he feels as anxious as you are. You arrive at the hospital to notice that more doctors (whom you've never seen) will take care of you and open you up! You are scared shitless at this point and you are a grown up... you don't cry! How you wish you had someone to talk to throughout this process that knew exactly how you felt.

You wake up and the pain is at 10. Your anxiety is still lounging in your head... you're not recovering as you thought you would or as the doctor expected. You will have to be admitted again because you don't seem to come through...

What it does

Feelix is a peer-to-peer psychological support platform where patients, that have experienced the same as you, can offer their time and experience to help others like you. It helps you to follow your procedure clearly, reminds you of your appointments and tracks (through wearables) your mental and health state. It even gives you a checklist what you have to do before and after the surgery. It can potentially intervene when you have anxiety spikes and suggest a peer to talk to or some kind of coping mechanism (alternative therapy) for your comfort. It also offers a curated video and text archive with all information available on your condition and what to expect while going through this medical process.

How we built it

The ideation followed an experience-based (user-centric) design. Initially, mapping the customer "patient" journey, tracking how each stage increases anxiety as they get closer to the surgery date. We researched what causes pre-surgery anxiety and how to control it. We found that providing patients with a plan what to do before and after the surgery, knowledge from professionals and support from people who have gone through the same process helps to cope with the anxiety and feel supported. So we created Feelix to provide knowledge and support to patients who will have to go to surgery.

Challenges we ran into

Biggest challenge of the process was understanding the challenge and narrowing it down.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of translating our own experiences into concepts to and implementing it into solutions.

What we learned

Anxiety before and during a medical procedure has an impact on how we recover. It is found that anxiety and depression makes healing after surgery slower and harder. If recovery is long it means that it costs HUS more.

What's next for Feelix

First implement it to Finnish healthcare services and then produce huge savings. As the concept and technology is scalable and extensible, it can be complimented with wearables which will detect our anxiety levels and help us to cope with it.