For my second competitor, I received an email from my tutor about a really interesting system that incorporates a gamified mobile app and AR to prepare children from the ages of 4-8 for their MRI procedure in a playful way, from the comfort of their own home. This was a coaching programme design by Philips Experience Design department. “Scan buddy” is a interactive game, as the user helps Ollie the elephant (mascot) undergo an MRI. The purpose of the app is to learn children how important it is to lie still in order to get a good image. As previously stated, the app uses AR, so the child can explore the MRI scanner themselves from their home.

Then once the child arrives at the hospital, the child meets Ollie and his friends at the mini scanner called, “kittenscanner” in the waiting room. Once the child is in the scan, Ollie can accompany them with the help of a projection.

The reason for this is to help children’s MRI scans run smoothly. As I explained in a previous blog, the success of MRI scans in children below the age of five years are as low as 50%, meaning that the scans must be repeated using sedatives or even anaesthesia to ensure that patients can complete them. These statistics are concerning. Anaesthetics can lead to health risks, if given repeatedly, which could happen in some cases, as a child’s brain is still developing. As well as this, it also has side effects. This can make the process longer, as the child is waiting for the anaesthetic by a professional. In turn, this can be an expensive procedure.

So ideally, the app wants to empower the child so they can go through the MRI without anaesthesia. The gamified mobile app can be used at home for coming into the hospital. It consists of an informative movie designed in a child-friendly way that can be customised. The child will go to an interactive game where they help lead elephants through an MRI scan. So they need to help Ollie remove mental objects from their person and put on earplug headphones. Also they need to make sure once the scan starts, it doesn’t move at all, so they can get a sharp picture for clinicians to use properly.

Then lastly, it has a Augmented Reality module where they could explore a virtual MRI scanner on the table in their living room, so they can look around to see what kind of components MRI scans has, so when they come to the hospital they can recognise what they saw on the app. This idea of doing three modules on the app - children will go from passive knowledge gathering in the beginning, to gradually towards achieve learning as they go through the modules. If there is a secondary user, it would be the parents as they are worried about their child.

In my opinion, this is a really effective and nicely designed application. From the research I gathered these past few weeks, I agree that the statistics of children and MRI scans are concerning and something needs to be done to prevent the uses of anaesthetics with these children. The use of the app to use in the user’s house is a very nice touch. One I overlooked previously. Furthermore, this idea has got me thinking and it would be a good idea if I can incorporate this in my design. I aim to target users of an older age group. Preferably teenagers, adults and middle age people. If I could create an app that uses AR or VR to reduce anxiety, explain to the user how the MRI scanner works and how to prepare for them, (from any place of their choosing) then I believe that would be beneficial to the user, judging by the statistics I gathered while researching.