Live:Lab

Background

In 2017 AbbVie UK created Live:Lab, a unique collaboration of experts from the UK’s healthcare, technology and creative industries. The collaboration aimed to help people overcome the barriers that prevent them from seeking health advice. The project was headed up by former Secretary of State for Health, the Rt Hon Alan Milburn.

Individual collaborators included: Professor Sir Muir Gray; Dr Zoe Williams; Alison Hardy, Headstrong Thinking; Dr Carmen Lefevre, UCL; and Christine Wellington OBE. Partner organisations included: 2020health; Aardman; Fundamental VR; Glitchers; Satalia; the Open Data Institute; The Patients Association and the University of Bedfordshire.

Live:Lab took on the ‘Fear of Finding Out’ or ‘FOFO’ – a major psychological barrier causing adults in the UK to put off seeking medical advice for worrying symptoms. The concept of FOFO was identified through a partnership with 2020health. The original report, first published in January 2017, can be downloaded here: http://www.2020health.org/2020health/Publications/Publications-2017/FOFO.html

Live:Lab experts provided a solution to express the prevalence of FOFO via a gamified quiz called ‘Crush Your FOFO’, launched in February 2018. The quiz, designed by Glitchers, sought to find out more about what lies behind FOFO, and helped users understand their own fears. More information about ‘Crush Your FOFO’ can be found here: https://glitchers.com/project/crush-you-fofo/

This created a new body of open data for experts to analyse in order to better understand what lies behind the ‘Fear of Finding Out’ and look to develop future solutions. You can access the final FOFO report here: https://www.abbvie.co.uk/content/dam/abbvie-dotcom/gb/documents/An-exploration-into-the-fear-of-finding-out.pdf

Follow the journey:

The next four episodes share the journey of AbbVie’s Live:Lab collaboration. From the first meeting of the group, through to the development of FOFO and the culmination of the hackathon focused on solution prototypes.

Episode 1

A human first approach to tackling healthcare issues. Watch Alan Milburn, former Secretary of State for Health, in this short film as he meets AbbVie’s former general manager, and embarks on the Live:Lab journey.

Episode 2

Harnessing the power of cross-industry collaboration. Watch this episode to learn more about the Live:Lab collaborators. See what happens when leading thinkers from the worlds of healthcare, technology and creativity come together to tackle the ‘Fear of Finding Out’. Watch.

Episode 3

The Big Reveal. Watch this episode to see Live:Lab collaborator, ‘Glitchers’ (award-winning game designers), reveal the data capture tool which the Live:Lab experts co-created. The ‘tool’ was an online quiz called ‘Crush Your FOFO’. It was designed to collect anonymous open data from UK adults, in order to help experts understand what lies behind the ‘Fear of Finding Out’. The quiz also helped to raise awareness of the importance of acknowledging worrying health symptoms at an early stage.

In this episode you’ll meet a famous face, whose family has been deeply affected by the ‘Fear of Finding Out’ and who supported the launch of ‘Crush Your FOFO’. Watch.