02 context
PARTNERSHIP AND FOCUS
The University of Waterloo partnered with Sun Life, asking students to create a digital product, focusing on women (ages 25-44) and mental health.
With many digital health solutions in the market, our group aimed to find under-represented groups experiencing many barriers to finding mental health help. Our focus for this project was to create a digital service for women with symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD).
PROBLEM STATEMENT
ADHD in women is extremely under-researched and under-represented, thus, leading to misdiagnoses and late diagnoses. This leaves this demographic without the necessary support to navigate challenges in work and academic settings effectively.
03 Research Findings
1.
ADHD symptoms in females are internalized, leading to proper diagnoses later in life.
The later diagnoses and improper treatment and management of ADHD leads women to report more severe symptoms than men, with feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.
2.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is commonly used to help with ADHD symptoms.
CBT commonly refers to the thought record worksheet to help people build the skills to form healthy thought habits. This is due to the fact that procrastination resulting from ADHD is a key part of their inability to self-regulate which leads to overwhelming thoughts and emotions.
3.
Chatbots have the potential to offer accessible, helpful, and engaging health-related information and services.
Specifically, text-based chatbots offer accessibility outside of homes (e.g. desktops and IoT home devices). Some limitations of chatbots include limited functionalities to respond to users' specific questions and the inability to continue with the use of chatbots when the communication systems are being updated.
3.
There are many barriers currently discouraging women from seeking treatment for ADHD.
Barriers included: affordability; long waiting lists; geographic distances; and lack of professionals and other resources specialized in ADHD treatment for women.
04 Addressing concerns and feedback from the first pitch presentation
1.
How will you justify the app's credibility in replacing help and advice from professionals?
Our digital solution does not aim to replace professional help. Instead, we address the pain points of this focus demographic by identifying key struggles of this segment and creating a resource for them. Thus, our product is not only limited to women diagnosed with ADHD, but also to women who experience symptoms alike and would benefit from routine building and the need for CBT as a result of poor self-regulation and time management.We want to make a more accessible resource for women with ADHD by eliminating existing barriers that discourage people from finding the right help. We use credible research and existing scheduling and CBT mobile applications to validate our features and purpose.
2.
How will you mitigate biases that may come with AI and machine learning?
We aim to overcome possible biases that come with machine learning and AI by targeting our focus on the technology in researched areas for routine building and CBT. The workings of our app (our specific routine build and CBT process) are used as guides for the AI when conversing with the user.
A possible substitute we considered for this feature would be a chatbot with automated responses. We decided that the use of AI would provide more personalized, and thus helpful, guidance to the user, which is a limitation of using chatbots.
Further, with research on the digital health-solutions market, we found that there are existing and successful applications that use AI to help users manage their mental health. This validates that AI has great potential to provide users with helpful services in the mental-health sector.
3.
Have you considered any other form of technology to present your solution instead (e.g. a website or IoT technologies)?
We decided that a mobile application could provide the best experience for our segment. Users can access CBT at any time, have the convenience of adding and making changes to their routine/schedule, and it also allow for the personalization of reminders (in the form of notifications). This is also the best mode to introduce incentives for users to continue with this method of ADHD management since premature ending of therapy is another great concern in CBT.
05 Our Solution
Introducing: crcl
Pronounced "circle" (cir•cle)
noun
A round plane figure whose boundary (the circumference) consists of points equidistant from the centre.
verb
Move all the way around (something or someone), especially more than once.
We aimed to create a mobile application to help women build the skills to create and manage their daily routines and form healthy thought habits.
Women with ADHD symptoms can use this app to help manage their symptoms relating to poor time management and self-regulation, and unhealthy thought habits as a result. Users can create a daily routine they wish to follow either manually or through the AI chatbot. The app will notify the user of upcoming events and timely check-ups to ensure they are on schedule. Our digital solution will also ask for mood check-ups throughout the day to monitor the users' emotions which may be correlated to their success in time management. With internalized feelings and thoughts being a key experience in women's ADHD symptoms, users can reflect on their mood changes and negative thoughts through the CBT service also offered through the AI chatbot. All chats are logged and accessed through the user's activity history to review their progress.
KEY FEATURES
Daily routine management through an AI chatbot with scheduling reminders.
Guided conversation
to reframe negative thoughts (CBT) through the AI chatbot.
Unlock achievements for activities and successes to sustain app engagement.
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