Epic Allies was study to create an app that would help HIV+ youth with medication adherence. The app had a comic book theme where users were superheroes in the world of “Medopolis.” Users could visually track their mood, as well as behaviors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, marijuana use, exercise, and medication adherence. Each time an individual tracked their activities, users earned “pills” which could be used to play mini-games. Users would also receive tailored health messages based on the behavior data.
The app and its components were specifically tailored and gamified to engage youth and illustrate for them how each of their activities affected their entire health, not just their HIV diagnosis. When you’re young and have conflicting priorities that can take precedent over your health, it’s sometimes easier to try to “forget” about your status. But through this app, we were able to engage youth and make them feel like they had control and understanding over their health and HIV diagnosis. Because everyone has a cellphone, app-delivered interventions are extremely scalable and are inherently able to reach a wide number of individuals who may not be engaged in traditional forms of medical care.
Here are some posters I’ve created for Epic Allies.
“Yes, I’m Ready and I’m Taking Them!” HIV-infected Young Men Who Have Sex with Men and Transgender Women Evaluate Epic Allied Gamified Smartphone App for Improving Antiretroviral Uptake and Adherence. Presented at the 2017 International Association of Providers of AIDS Care Conference.
Fight Bad Guys, Remember Your Meds, Save the World Presented at the 2016 International Association of Providers of AIDS Care Conference.