Xploro

Having watched his young daughter go through treatment for a rare bone cancer — an ordeal that had filled Issy with fear and confusion — Dom Raban knew what he needed to do. “Straight away, I wanted to use my professional skills, which are in design and software development, to do something that would improve that experience for other children going through similar courses of medical treatment.”

He created Xploro Inc., a digital therapeutics platform. Now children can customize avatars in their own image and walk their characters through immersive gameplay to ease stress and reduce procedural anxiety. The app shows young patients what to expect from equipment and doctors. Recently, Raban heard about a boy, who, going into his fourth round of chemotherapy, tried Xploro. “The next day he told his nurse that he finally understood why he was having that treatment,” says Raban, whose daughter, by the way, is 11 years cancer-free.

A clinical study showed that children using Xploro demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in procedural anxiety and statistically significant increases in both patient satisfaction and procedural knowledge. “So, from that perspective, we know it works,” he says.

Based in Cleveland, Ohio, Xploro is in use in hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdom. The next move is encouraging insurers to also subscribe to the app service. Currently in talks with Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary about a pilot project, Raban would like to get Xploro established in Canada. UCeed — with its “access and knowledge” — is helping.

Visit Xploro’s website for more information.

Xploro Inc. has received investment from UCeed, a venture philanthropy fund accelerating UCalgary and community-based startup companies to advance problem-solving research, create jobs and fuel the economy. A key program in the UCalgary innovation ecosystem, UCeed bridges the gap between innovation, demonstration and commercialization, and is managed by UCalgary’s knowledge-transfer and business incubator, Innovate Calgary.

UCeed Child Health is funded by the generosity of our community through the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and its mission to inspire our community to invest in excellence in child health, research and family centred care.