Little Journey app offers reassurance for kids in hospital
- Published
The app uses animation to explain medical procedures to children
A former NHS anaesthetist says he wants to accelerate the progress of an app he developed to help children with their experience of hospital.
Dr Chris Evans developed the Little Journey smartphone and tablet app to reassure children undergoing treatment, using animation and games.
The app received £2m funding from the Lego Foundation to develop its scope further.
Dr Evans said it gave young patients a "personalised experience".
While working in hospitals Dr Evans, from Sway in Hampshire, recognised there was a problem with children suffering symptoms of anxiety, such as bed-wetting, in 50% of cases of elective surgery. In many cases, those symptoms remained up to a year after the procedure.
"That situational trauma that's happened from coming into hospital changes the way that child will look at and view healthcare," he said.
He saw that children's experiences could be improved if they were given information in advance, in a language they understood.
The app has games and animations as well as specific details about individual hospitals, with users able to explore hospital wards in virtual reality.
It also explains what happens during certain procedures and what the patient can expect afterwards.
Dr Chris Evans is expanding the app to cover hospitals in Ireland, the US and Canada
"We wanted to give them that personalised approach. We found parents were using the app and learning from the children's animations so we introduced a new system to deliver information to the parents."
Other features on the app include swirling colours to distract a child undergoing a blood test.
They have been found to be particularly important for children with neurodivergent conditions such as autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Emily's son Alexander was one of the first to use the app before he had several operations at the Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.
"He would know what was coming. He knew the roles of the staff around, the areas in the hospital where he was going, where they would put the mask on him and he would be going to sleep. I think it just put us at ease," she said.
Children can take a virtual reality tour of hospital wards
The Lego Foundation, the charitable arm of the Danish toy giant, has awarded Dr Evans £2m for further development of the app.
More than 60 hospitals in the UK have already signed up to contribute content and Dr Evans has expanded abroad into Ireland, Canada and the US.
"It just means we can accelerate much harder, it's just gone crazy really," he said.
Follow BBC South on Facebook, external, X, external, or Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to south.newsonline@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2240, external.