National recognition for ICT hospital application

From left, Darcelle Hinze, Chelsea McGuiness and Belinda Rex with the Kidz@GCU Hospital app
From left, Darcelle Hinze, Chelsea McGuinness and Belinda Rex with the Kidz@GCU Hospital app

An application developed at Griffith University and which helps children feel less anxious when entering hospital has received a merit at the 2014 National iAwards.

The awards were announced in Melbourne last week and since then the team representing the School of Information and Communication Technology has been invited to attend the 2014 Asia Pacific ICT Alliance Awards (APICTA) in Lahore, Pakistan, in November.

Each year APICTA recognises the best in innovation from across the Asia Pacific ICT community.

Kidz@GCU Hospital is an interactive “storybook” style app that makes trips to Gold Coast University Hospital less daunting for children by familiarising them with hospital locations, sounds and medical staff they will meet along the way.

It was developed in 2013 by ICT students Darcelle Hinze, Chelsea McGuinness, Belinda Rex and Ashley Burns as part of their final year project.

Calling themselves The Design Cellar, their app won the Tertiary Undergraduate Student category at this year’s Queensland iAwards.

Kidz@GCU Hospital is a free application available for both Android and iOS devices and can be found in Google Play and the App Store.