What’s the value of an iAward? The Medicity team says the recognition helped it commercialise its innovation – a digital maternity platform called “Eve” – which now boasts more than 20,000 users.
Medicity’s Eve maternity platform won an iAward in 2021
The Medicity team first realised they were onto “a real winner” with digital maternity platform “Eve” after a successful internal pilot at Cabrini Health, which owns the NfP.
But to translate this success into commercialisation, Medicity’s business operations manager Josh Farrington wanted to get as much kudos behind their pitch as possible.
He’d seen the iAwards “pop up” on his LinkedIn feed a couple of times over the years, and in 2021 he decided to give it shot.
“I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to get some exposure and external recognition,” Josh says.
Straightforward entry process
Josh notes that the “straightforward” entry process – namely a short video where he had to answer four key questions about the solution – removed any time barriers to entering.
It was worth it. Eve won the Not-for-Profit & Community solution of the Year.
That win, Josh hoped, would help generate “external recognition that would help us get the word out about Eve to other hospitals”.
Boosting external recognition
Did it help? “Absolutely,” Josh says. “We now include that we’re an iAward winner on all our presentation decks, marketing material and on our website. It’s something that we value and cherish.”
“It also opened up some opportunities to have conversations. We often lead with the tag line ‘Eve is an award-winning digital maternity platform’.”
About Eve – elevated maternity and post-natal support
Eve is a digital maternity platform offered free to new and expectant mothers and their partners through their hospital, which subscribes to the platform.
Some of Eve’s features include allowing users to track appointments, monitor baby movement, track their own emotional wellbeing, message midwives and to participate in virtual pregnancy classes.
Around 20,000 people are using Eve across Australia from a mix of 13 public and private hospitals, and Josh is preparing for growth. “We’re hoping for that number to double in the next six to 12 months.”
Unlike some commercial maternity or pregnancy apps, which only use static text and video, Josh says Eve’s point of difference is that it offers live digital engagement for women in their pregnancy.
It also provides post-pregnancy support for breastfeeding and sleeping, and access to a forum that is monitored by midwives.
The team is now working on making the platform multi-lingual to support more women. It plans to have Eve translated into the top 20 most spoken languages in Australia by the end of the year.
New innovations on the horizon
Since its iAward win, Medicity is continuing to innovate. It’s latest software platform, eCaptis, captures and reports patient-reported outcomes and is up and running at several hospitals. “It’s about evaluating outcomes and experience during and post care with the idea to further improve treatment plans down the track.”
For innovators like Josh and the Medicity team, awards for their work go beyond a trophy. “The award has proven to be truly valuable to Medicity in helping us get our name and product out there,” Josh says. “I would strongly recommend anyone considering it to put their application in.”