YOGYAKARTA, KOMPAS – The Pasienia healthcare application developed by Gadjah Mada University (UGM) graduates was named the winner of the Google Business Group Stories 2017 competition. The application beat 468 others from 26 countries.
The Google Business Group (GBG) Stories competition is an annual contest held by Google to encourage entrepreneurs to utilize online services to make global social contributions. The selection process began in late 2016 with Google employees serving as members of the jury.
The competition winner was announced on April 6. Previously Google chose nine global finalists from a total of 496 applicants. Afterwards, the jury picked the three best applications based on assessment scores.
In an interview on Thursday (20/4/2017), Pasienia CEO Fadli Wilihandarwo, 29, said that the jury considered a number of factors, including application innovation, its utility for people and the environment and the number of application users.
“I am very proud. I did not expect that, based on these criteria, Pasienia could win the competition. We were facing many other applications with significant positive contributions globally,” said Fadli who was a graduate of the UGM School of Medicine.
Fadli developed the application with his colleagues from UGM, namely Haidar Ali Ismail, 23, from School of Mathematics and Exact Sciences, Dimas Ragil Mumpuni, 23, from the School of Economy and Business, Rusmawati Harya Megasari, 24, from the School of Economy and Business, and Nurhidayati Utami, 22, from the UGM Vocational School. They developed the Pasienia application for UGM’s Innovative Academy 2 competition in 2015.
Connecting patients
Pasienia is an Android-based application that connects patients undergoing health treatments. Through the application, patients share information about their experiences with illnesses and their medical consultations.
The two main features in this application are the patients’ timeline and doctors’ timeline. The two timelines are mediums for users to interact with other patients and doctors.
In the patients’ timeline, much like in other social media websites, patients can upload statuses and photos and interact with other patients and doctors who use the application.
Meanwhile, doctors can share useful specific healthcare information with patients with certain illnesses through their timelines.
“Through the patients’ timeline, patients can share their stories with one another and motivate one another. Meanwhile, in the doctors’ timeline, patients can have online and free medical consultations,” Fadli said.
Since it was released on Google Playstore in mid-2016, the Pasienia application has been downloaded 7,000 times and has obtained a use score of 4.2 out of 5 stars. Up to now, there were about 3,500 unique threads of interactions among users recorded by the application.
UGM academic health system chief Budi Mulyono said that the Pasienia application could improve patients’ confidence to recover from their illnesses.
“Moreover, the application has a feature that connects patients and doctors. Therefore, patients can have input and suggestions on their health care from the experts,” Budi said.
The competition’s runner-up winner is also from Indonesia. The application called Reblood facilitates supplies to blood banks across Indonesia. The third-place winner is Croquetero from Mexico.
The three winners will be flown to Mountain View in California to participate in the Google I/O annual conference from May 16 to 18, 2017. “I will use the opportunity to globalize the Pasienia application,” Fadil said.
(DIM)