A game created by a medical art student at Dundee University aimed at educating young people about meningitis and septicaemia has been approved by Apple.
Cilein Kearns (20), from Derry in Northern Ireland, invented the iPhone game as part of his MSc medical art project. It has now been released as a free app, available to download worldwide from iTunes.
The game teaches young people how to recognise the symptoms of the deadly diseases, which can kill in hours, and it is often a race against time to get medical help.
Cilein says that was foremost in his mind when he started his research project.
”I am a medical student at Edinburgh University and I came to Dundee to do my masters at Dundee because I am very interested in art and animation,” he said.
”The big thing about this is it’s the public who need to know about the symptoms, not doctors, because if you don’t realise the seriousness of the symptoms and catch it in time it’s going to mean people get seriously ill or even die.
”I wanted to think about the best way to let people know this and I thought as it’s a game I can get the word out across the world.
”If it’s a leaflet then you might read it once but because it’s a game on your iPhone it not only makes it fun but it makes it accessible and you can go back to it again which reinforces learning.
”It’s very simple and very easy to play and you carry it about with you so the chances are people will play it over and over.”
Cilein’s app is an arcade game called Symptom Scenes which features a cast of cute characters suffering from meningitis or septicaemia and it has been endorsed by Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF).
Cilein added: ”Just knowing the symptom names isn’t enough, you need to be able to recognise them and fast.
”My solution has been to design this app as a game that’s suitable for kids and adults alike as a fun way to learn something useful.
”By knowing the signs, and acting quickly they could save a life I’ve just made that learning more enjoyable and accessible as a free game.”
Chris Head, chief executive of MRF, said: ”Meningitis and septicaemia can affect people of all ages, striking in minutes and killing in hours.
”We have our own iPhone app (Meningitis Know the Symptoms) which has proved popular with students since it was launched in 2010 but we’re delighted that Cilein has come up with another way of raising awareness of these diseases.
”We hope his app will encourage even more people to be aware of the signs and symptoms and also support the work of MRF which funds vital research into the prevention, detection and treatment of meningitis and septicaemia.”
You can download the app for iOS devices by clicking here.