Trish Poulter, an NHS worker who serves at Peterborough City Hospital, has designed an app that supports teenager's mental health by using AI.
Trish is an Information Systems Developer for the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, and recently visited a NHS Hack Day to showcase her designs.
The NHS Hack Day, which was a day for "Geeks who love the NHS", was a Dragon's Den-style event, where NHS staff could pitch their ideas.
Trish put herself forward to represent the North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, and ended up winning at the weekend-long event.
The "hospital IT guru" and her team brainstormed, researched, designed and delivered a pitch on an prototype app called 'PAWS' - Personalised AI for Wellbeing Support.
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Trish explained: “I arrived at the weekend not really knowing what to expect or what was expected of me.
"The room was full of NHS workers from all backgrounds who simply wanted to explore low-cost solutions or ‘hacks’ to challenges they face in their own professional lives on a daily basis.
“I opted to join a team to design and develop an engaging, relatable, useful, accessible and supportive app for teenagers to help with anxiety, mood and other mental health issues.
Trish said: "We brainstormed and researched the topic and I came up with the name PAWS – suggesting that we use age-appropriate graphics, similar to those used throughout gaming, to make it relatable to users – and introduce a range of emojis and avatars to allow them to express their mood and chat about their feelings."
Her team used an AI chat software to create an automated response service for users.
Featured projects from the weekend and other events are uploaded to the NHS website as a learning and resource tool for Trusts around the UK.
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