Background

Breast cancer is commonly detected through nine key symptoms. However, women in New Zealand, and indeed all over the world, are usually told to just look for “lumps.” This means that other changes in their breasts can be overlooked or ignored, leading to later stage diagnosis of breast cancer. The fatality rates of late stage diagnosis are significantly higher. Pre Check was created to solve this. One in nine women in New Zealand will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, so our target audience really was all women. Although breast cancer is more prevalent in older women, we know that if we can teach thorough self-checking behaviours early, women are more likely to establish lifelong habits.

Describe the creative idea (40% of vote)

Pre Check uses haptic technology to create unique vibration sequences that, when combined with audio and visual cues, teach your hands how to look for breast cancer. To do this, we mapped 269 haptic points over nine 3D surfaces - each triggering unique touch or audio feedbacks. In doing so, the app allowed women to simply feel around their phone screen looking for abnormalities - just as they would their own breast. It’s available for free to all women, with personalised reminders working to change behaviour and establish routine self-checks.

Describe the execution (40% of vote)

Pre Check reinvents the way we learn about breast cancer, from pamphlets in your doctor’s surgery to interactive symptoms on your own phone screen. Since we touch our phones over 2000 times a day, we decided to turn that subconscious behaviour into a personalised, private experience that works to create routine self-checks. Pre Check uses haptic technology to create unique vibration sequences that, when combined with audio and visual cues, teach your hands how to look for breast cancer. The interface was designed to closely emulate a real self-check, so both the UI and UX needed to feel as organic as possible. To do this, we mapped 269 touch points over nine 3D surfaces - each triggering unique touch or audio feedbacks. This is a mobile first initiative, which meant we did extensive tests to ensure the haptics were consistent across Android and Apple devices.

List the results (20% of vote)

Pre Check became the #1 Health App. And has been seen by more than half of the New Zealand population. It has the potential to prevent 10,000 late stage diagnoses and the death of 650 NZ women every year.