Finalist
myVOXZOGO: Personalized Caregiver Support at their Fingertips
Summary of work
Caregivers of children living with achondroplasia share a unique experience. Not only do they face standard challenges related to managing treatment, but they also deal with educating their children about their disease and navigating stigma.
To address these challenges, BioMarin developed an innovative support programme called myVOXZOGO. This omnipresent, wrap-around programme leverages an evidence-based smartphone app to deliver personalised support driven by a behavioural science-based intelligence algorithm. Digital resources were developed alongside caregivers and care teams and tailored to meet their specific needs throughout their treatment journey. These vetted resources were then deployed at the appropriate time to ensure injection administration, successful disease management and long-term treatment adherence. The myVOXZOGO app also offers in-person specialist nurse and virtual care team support upon request.
This programme is particularly innovative due to its use of behaviour change-centric smartphone interactions and hybrid support model that was critical during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since launching in October 2021, early returns demonstrate high levels of enrolment and engagement, particularly in the first few months when adherence is challenging. While the long-term impacts will be measured down the road, the programme’s uniqueness and the positive reception from the achrondoplasia community make myVOXZOGO an award-worthy support solution.
Judges’ comments
In rare diseases access to high quality care and support can too often depend on where you live. The judges loved that this app democratises access to both trackers and materials, but also gives a direct line of communication with a nurse for when that is needed. The focus on co-creation in this project delivered a tool which is really useful for parents and carers which was demonstrated through the good levels of uptake and the fact that people were coming back to this time after time for support.
