myhomehelper wins Peoples Choice award at 2013 Technology4Good awards

myhomehelper has seen off the likes of Barclays Bank to win the People's Choice award at this years AbilityNet Technology4Good awards.

Kevin Marsch picked up the award for myhomehelper at the awards ceremony held at the BT Centre in London. Hosted by Mariella Frostrup the awards celebrate the hard work of people of all ages who use the power of computers and the internet to make the world a better place.

The first award of the day was the Accessibility Award, which myhomehelper narrowly lost out to awards co-sponsor Barclays Bank. Speaking to some of the judges after the ceremony Kevin was told that this was the most fiercely debated category and there was a lot of support for myhomehelper.

Eight other awards were handed out throughout the afternoon, before the winner of the People's Choice award was announced. This was an open vote for the public to decide who they thought should win from the 24 finalists. myhomehelper was the clear winner.

Later in the afternoon the audience were asked to select their Winner of Winners. There were two rounds of interviews held by Mariella, where each of the 10 category winners had to 'sell' there selves to the audience. Self Help Services won through from the first set of interviews and myhomehelper was chosen from the second set of interviews, setting up a final head to head interview and audience vote between the two of them. Self Help Services narrowly, but deservedly, took the audience vote.

The afternoon concluded with drinks and canapés and a chance for the participants to mingle and congratulate or commiserate each other.

 

*** VOTING HAS NOW CLOSED ***

Thanks to everyone who has voted and tweeted their support for myhomehelper we really appreciate it, you've given us a chance against the big boys.

About myhomehelper

myhomehelper was designed and built by Kevin Marsch. In 2010 Kevins Mum, Pat (shown in the photo on the home page), was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. Kevin created a very basic version of myhomehelper to let his Mum know where he was and when he would be back when he went on holiday. Seeing how effective this was in reducing her anxiety Kevin continued adding features to the system.

After receiving positive feedback from carers, doctors, paramedics and the local council telehealth team, Kevin quit his job to form Simpla Solutions and focus on myhomehelper full time.

Kevin has continued developing myhomehelper, using the key design principle that the person with dementia shouldn't have to do anything other than occasionally look at it for the system to work and be beneficial for them. For the last 18 months myhomehelper has been piloted across the UK and in the US. Based on feedback from these pilots new features have been added and existing features refined.

Feedback about the system has continued to be positive as Kevin prepares to officially launch myhomehelper this Summer.