Over one-half of all adults in the U.S. live with a chronic illness–an astounding 120 million people. These illnesses, which are mostly invisible, are often accompanied by pervasive feelings of isolation and loneliness. Find Your Ditto is a mobile platform that connects individuals living with the same chronic illness locally for on-demand, in-person peer support. Unlike traditional support groups that are bound to a set structure, topic, time, and location, users can personalize their meet-ups to their specific needs and meet in a casual format with other local individuals living with similar daily stresses. A low-tech pilot in early 2016 highlighted the need of Find Your Ditto as a chronic illness resource for college students– within a few weeks, over 100 students signed up for the pilot, across 40 different illnesses with 30% having depression and/or anxiety comorbidities. Find Your Ditto’s vision is that from the moment of diagnosis, no individual living with chronic illness ever has to feel alone and can finally feel like “it’s not just me.”
Teams:
Parisa Soraya, Health Informatics, MHI 2017
Brianna Wolin, Biomedical Engineering, BSE 2016
Website: findyourditto.com