The brief from the client was clear: Add value for key ophthalmologist accounts by supporting adherence to treatment.

The key moment for us was the patient’s transition from “pretty healthy” to “facing blindness”. As they sit in the waiting room, newly-diagnosed patients feel overwhelmed. They are shocked to learn they could go blind. They don’t know whether the injection will improve their vision. If it will be painful. There are many questions, and only half an hour to find answers before they re-enter the consult room for their first treatment. Some will Google the answers, but may not find accurate information before the nurse comes back to take them in. Critically, how much can they take in while they are shell shocked by the diagnosis?

Our objective was to lessen the anxiety, reassuring patients with knowledge. We wanted them to re-enter the consult room better prepared for what’s to come.

The newly-diagnosed patient is taken on a journey around their neighbourhood, encountering other people in their community who have been touched by the disease. These friends help the patient to understand what to expect from the treatment, answering frequently asked questions with charm and sincerity. Touches of irreverent humour, scattered throughout the content, help to lessen the patient’s anxiety as they sit and wait for their first injection.

Australian Baby Boomers grew up in a post-war era marked by an evolution of our national psyche. This generation forged a new national identity as irreverent innovators.

As younger people, they enjoyed all that life had to offer. Now they are ageing, they see no reason for that to change. So it’s a shock when they start to lose their health. And the prospect of going blind - being reliant on others - touches their deepest insecurities.

We knew that Australian Baby Boomers are enthusiastic adopters of new technology. We also knew that mobile apps can be effective at reducing pre-operative anxiety, because they occupy us cognitively and physically.

So we gave Boomers an interactive learning app – an easy-to-implement anxiety buster for the waiting room.

From the seed of the idea, the team spent 6 months building and crafting an interactive learning app that caters for macular degeneration patients. First, we surveyed newly-diagnosed patients and their ophthalmologists to identify and answer the top 10 frequently asked questions. Next, we worked with a leading ophthalmologist to customise the wireframes and user experience for those who have lost some of their central vision, as is characteristic of the early stages of macular degeneration. Finally, we skinned and built the app, piloting it in the waiting room of our consultant ophthalmologist before releasing it to other practices.

The mobile application is a key account management tool, and its release has necessarily been small scale. It is not available on the app store. But for those patients who have access, the information has helped to reduce waiting room anxiety, and better prepare them for their first injection.

As above, reach has been small due to the nature of the project and the small-scale release. However, feedback from key ophthalmology clinics, their doctors and patients has been positive. Anecdotally, the project is increasing the doctor’s willingness to prescribe Lucentis, although it is too early to quantify the change. Importantly the tool is helping to reduce patient anxiety, meeting the project’s core performance indicator.