Fraunhofer Center for Assistive Information and Communication Solutions – AICOS
02.02.2024
ANATHEMA won an honourable mention at the 2nd Oncosexology Congress, organised by IPO do Porto.
The poster entitled "Promoting sexual health among colorectal cancer survivors: Randomised controlled trial (Anathema)" was selected as one of the six best posters presented at the Congress.
Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS (FhP-AICOS) conceptualised and led Anathema, a European project.
“During this project, we conducted extensive user research to inform the design of the app, made advances towards new design research methods for taboo topics, and played a significant part in the design of the randomized controlled trials.”, underlines Ana Correia de Barros, Head of Human-Centred Design and responsible for the development of the project.
Coordinated by FhP-AICOS, Anathema is a project developed in partnership with the Psychology Centre of the University of Porto (CPUP), Instahelp, Sprigs and Unie KBO - Unie van Katholieke Bonden van Ouderen.
Anathema intended to build the first smartphone-based sexual health promotion programme for older adults, stroke survivors and people with colorectal cancer, available in four languages (English, Portuguese, German and Dutch), which sought to increase access of these user groups to sexual health support and increase adherence to programs through engaging user experiences.
In order to inform the design of the sexual health intervention programme and respective smartphone application, Anathema engaged the three target populations – older adults, stroke survivors and colorectal cancer patients – in user research through focus groups, interviews and questionnaires, followed by co-design sessions, usability tests and three pilot randomised controlled trials to determine the acceptability, feasibility and efficacy of the developed solution.