A hospital in São Paulo, dedicated to treating children with cancer, has innovated in treating its patients' emotional weaknesses. In April this year, it developed a doll that stores and plays voice messages sent by family and friends via WhatsApp.
Usually, a child cancer patient goes through long periods of hospitalization, mainly due to the reduction of the defenses they present during the administration of the medicines. Aware of the anguish caused by the interruption of a high sociability routine - with school, friends, courses, neighbors, family reunions etc - the hospital asked the little ones they missed most during their stay. The answer was as expected: they miss family and friends.
Seeking to soothe this loneliness, the hospital created a doll in the format most common among children - the teddy bear - that receives, in the filling, a USB device that associates the system with an audio player. Called Elo, each teddy bear corresponds to a mobile number and each number to an inpatient.
In addition to playing with the doll itself, it is enough for the child to shake Elo's hand so that he can listen to messages left by anyone, anywhere, through social media.
It is a timely use of technology to promote humanization through service delivery and patient contact.
