An app “where you are the hero” to better understand the disease

“Today you have your first appointment with your neurologist. The story begins in a long hospital corridor. Accessible for a few days, the free application “My life with multiple sclerosis” defines itself as a “UFO in the world of health”. Presenting itself as a graphic novel “where you are the hero”, it offers to slip into the skin of a patient suffering from multiple sclerosis in order to better understand this disease of the nervous system, which concerns 110,000 people in France, most of them diagnosed between 20 and 40 years old.

Diagnosis, outbreaks (appearance of new symptoms), encounters with other patients, questions about their daily life… At each stage of the “adventure”, the user plays the scenario he wants, among the options offered. “We wanted all the reliable information to be gathered here, even taboo questions such as those of the wheelchair or pregnancy”, explains Arnaud Gautelier, director of the association Notre sclérose, which designed this application primarily for its destination. sick people. “They often come out of the first date completely dejected and without idea of ​​what their journey of care and life might look like,” continues this former artistic director of 45 years, diagnosed in 1999. It can also be a good tool for them. relatives. “

Videos and podcasts

Nicely illustrated by Renaud Pennelle, the app refers to dozens of articles and videos written or featuring “health professionals who are experts in multiple sclerosis, from the University Hospital of Lille, Lyon, Nantes, Montpellier, Strasbourg and Toulouse. », Explains the association, based in Nantes.

Patient testimony podcasts are listed because the idea of ​​this “educational and interactive” fiction is also to break the “isolation” experienced by some patients. Practical advice on how to manage fatigue, married life or administrative procedures is given there, for example.