April 21/09 – Upopolis arrives at BC Children’s Hospital

BC Childrens’ Hospital patients join online BY GILLIAN SHAW, VANCOUVER SUN APRIL 21, 2009

VANCOUVER — For all the dials and tubes that Kate Mitchell must drag around during her stay at the BC Childrens’ Hospital, a vital piece of electronic equipment has been missing.

That is her Internet-connected laptop computer, an item usually not welcome in children’s wards, where unsupervised access could put kids at risk from cyber-predators and other downsides of the World Wide Web.

They could end up surfing inappropriate websites, dig up difficult, highly technical material about their medical conditions, and even find dangerous information. For example, a patient suffering from anorexia might seek out diet websites.

But those cyber-conditions were cured Monday when the 16-year-old Mitchell signed on to the newly launched Upopolis, a secure and youth-friendly social network that lets patients virtually escape the confines of their beds and their hospital rooms for friendships and fun online.

Delivered through a partnership of the BC Children’s Hospital, the Kids’ Health Links Foundation and Telus, Upopolis is the first secure social network in western Canada for kids in hospital care.

“It’s really exciting,” said Mitchell, who started her own blog on the site during the news conference announcing it, documenting her experience as cameras flashed and reporters pushed microphones forward to catch her words. “You get a laptop in your room, which is really exciting, and you can play DVDs on it too.”

Upopolis, which gives young people their own user interfaces when they sign on, offers Mitchell a range of options, from blogging to online chat, schoolwork and finding both general websites and health information edited to be easily understandable.

“I’ve never had a blog, so that’s really exciting and I can meet people who have the same thing as me,” said Mitchell, who has been in and out of hospital since 2005 with Crohn’s disease.

The site had its beginnings with the experience of two 14-year-old friends who were in hospital in Hamilton, Ont. One, ChristinaPapaevangelou, was in Vancouver on Monday with her father Basile Papaevangelou, founder of Kids’ Health Links and the man behind Upopolis.

The other, Christina’s friend Katy McDonald, never made it out of hospital; she died of a rare form of cancer. She was remembered Monday with Papaevangelou’s announcement of a $40,000 fellowship in child life studies, the first of its kind in Canada. The initial recipient is Vancouver Children’s Hospital.

“The inspiration was my daughter and her friend Katy,” Papaevangelou said in an interview. “My daughter was near death and she survived. It was from toxic shock, a massive blood infection. She was in intensive care.”

He said Katy’s mother told him she had really missed her computer while in hospital.

He learned that most children’s hospitals don’t allow patients unsupervised access to the Internet; few even provide laptops they can use while supervised.

Papaevangelou said while people think the ban has to do with interference with delicate hospital electronics, it has more to do with the risk of cyber-predators “connecting with fragile children.”

With Upopolis, “We essentially put a protective bubble around the child and the only way a child can get out ... is through Upopolis and that channel has to be approved by the hospital and by the parent,” he said.

Upopolis has chat functions and e-mail, but doesn’t allow access to sites such as Facebook. It does let patients connect with others in the network, in the same hospital and in others.

Telus, which donated the system, built it and hosts it in a Telus data centre, donated 20 laptops to BC Children’s and five years of maintenance for them, plus the $40,000 for the child life fellowship.

Telus president Darren Entwistle said linking young people in hospital to their friends, families and communities is a vital part of the healing process. He said Telus will invest $100 million in health care technology over the next three years.

“Despite massive investment, Canada’s health care system is in the midst of a challenge of historic proportions that is impacting every single Canadian,” he said. “This challenge is impacting the way we care for our children, and the way we care for our parents. “I believe that the only way we will answer the challenge of health care affordability and effectiveness is through innovation and investment in information, communications and technology.”

Mar 31/09 – Upopolis launches at IWK Health Centre in Halifax

Donation to IWK children's hospital sets up social networking site for kids By THE CANADIAN PRESS Tue. Mar 31 - 5:36 PM

Atlantic Canada's largest children's hospital has received a donation of $50,000 to help launch a social networking site that allows kids to connect online with their family, friends and schools.

The Upopolis site gives children at the IWK Health Centre in Halifax access to instant messaging and games.

It also allows children to stay up to date with their school work, as well as giving them access to health information and the ability to connect to other children in hospital.

IWK President Anne McGuire says Upopolis lets young patients talk to other children with the same medical conditions and share what they are going through.

The donation is the first that has been made by the Telus Atlantic Community Board, which was set up to help local charitable organizations throughout Atlantic Canada.

Dec 12/07 – First Launch of Upopolis at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario

An online lifeline A new social networking site connects kids to their school, friends and family from the comfort of their hospital beds

CARLY WEEKS

Globe and Mail July 15, 2008 at 8:36 AM EDT

It's a room that could easily be mistaken for a daycare centre or children's play area. Colourful toys lay scattered across most surfaces, a television blares noisy cartoons, and child-sized tables and chairs dot the room.

But here, the normally heartwarming signs of youthful exuberance are deceptive. Instead of running, jumping and laughing with boundless energy, many of the children sit listlessly with needles in their arms as they receive chemotherapy treatment. A child-sized examination table and intravenous pole are available to play with to help ease fears of strange medical equipment. One toddler who has lost all of his hair from cancer therapy moves unsteadily through the room, still too young to be sure of his footsteps.

The heartbreaking scene is a daily reality at McMaster Children's Hospital in Hamilton, Ont., where kids of all ages are treated for serious diseases that range from hemophilia to aggressive cancers.

While their friends are out revelling in the sunshine or sitting down for meals at the family dinner table, these children are confined to hospital beds, sometimes for extended periods, and are isolated from their comforting networks of family and friends.

It is that isolation that inspired Basile Papaevangelou, a former chief executive officer at an aerospace firm, to take action to reconnect hospitalized children with the outside world. Mr. Papaevangelou, who lives in Oakville, Ont., was drawn to the cause after his then-teenaged daughter, Christina, fell critically ill with toxic shock syndrome in 2002, and coincidentally saw her best friend Katy McDonald diagnosed with terminal cancer a short time later.

After watching Christina suffer, and hearing about how isolated Katy felt at the hospital before her death, Mr. Papaevangelou decided to look for a way to help kids in hospital cope with being cut off from the world they know and care about. To accomplish his mission, Mr. Papaevangelou and Christina, now 22, created in 2004 the Kids Health Links Foundation, a charitable organization whose purpose is to bring the capabilities of the Internet to children's hospital wards to ease their fear, anxiety and feelings of isolation.

Their efforts led to the creation of Upopolis, a new social networking site designed exclusively for young people in hospital. It allows children to instant message with friends outside, to receive homework assignments remotely, play games and go online in a safe and controlled network from their hospital beds. Telus Corp. developed the network for the Kids Health Links Foundation and will provide technical support on a continuing basis, and Toshiba of Canada Ltd. is donating laptops so young people will have easy access to the network.

"[The network] gives them a very important and critical place to stay connected to their worlds, to allow them a channel to their friends, family [and] teachers while they're going through some of the most significant and challenging moments of their lives," said Joe Natale, president of Telus Business Solutions.

Although computers and the Internet are ubiquitous across Canada, bringing that technology into a hospital setting with children involved is not an easy task.

Online predators, inappropriate websites and other risks, in addition to limited resources, mean that few, if any, organizations would be willing to provide unlimited Internet access to hospitalized children.

The creation of a social networking site available only to hospitalized children and those they invite to join, as well as hospital administrators and family members, ensures the young patients are not at risk when they go online. Upopolis was officially launched at McMaster Children's Hospital last December and has been a major hit with the children who have used it so far, according to Paola Di Lalla, a certified child life specialist at the hospital.

In addition to the messaging, surfing and games it provides, the network offers specialized functions to help children learn about their condition and what to expect while staying in the hospital.

"Kids love it," said Ms. Di Lalla, who works with hospitalized children to help them cope with the experience. "It just gives them a bit of control over gaining knowledge about what's happening in hospital and how they can help themselves."

Curtis Rodrigue, 14, was one of the first young people to take advantage of Upopolis while in the hospital. Curtis was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma earlier this year and has stayed in the hospital several times for chemotherapy. Having access to the Internet and a social networking program that allowed him to keep in touch with his brothers and friends helped take his mind off the hospital experience and feel a connection with the outside world.

"It's great," said Curtis, who recently finished chemotherapy and is starting radiation treatment. "I think [not having Upopolis] would make the time go by really slow, especially if you're in here for a long time. You wouldn't have anything to do. If you have this it's easier to stay in touch with people and do games and stuff like that."

The social networking system has shown so much promise that more than a dozen Canadian hospitals have indicated they would like to bring it into their organization, according to Mr. Papaevangelou.

Upopolis is scheduled to be up and running in two more children's hospitals by the end of the year - one in Ontario, and another in Western Canada. A hospital in Atlantic Canada will probably follow shortly after.

Once the network is operating at other sites, children in hospitals across the country will be able to connect using the secure Upopolis network and forge new ties with peers going through similar experiences.

"I get goosebumps every millisecond when I'm working this project," Mr. Papaevangelou said. "It enhances the lives and improves the quality of life of hospitalized children."