Caroline Smeenk makes it easier for rural women to independently monitor their health

"Antenna helps you broaden your horizons and scope of what you see as design."

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 Canada has a population of about 36 million people and about 82 per cent of them live in urban areas.

What user experience researcher Caroline Smeenk found, during her research project, was that of the people who lived in rural areas, about 17 per cent of them live about two hours from their nearest hospitals.

This makes getting regular access to healthcare tough especially during pregnancy where one needs to get tested regularly to avoid disease like preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia is a complication that occurs during pregnancy, causes high blood pressure, kidney damage, and other problems.

At the inagural #Antenna2017, she presented her project Maternal Home Care which is a system for pregnant women to use in their homes to monitor symptoms of preeclampsia. The system includes easy to use, non-intrusive products as well as an app.

In this video she reflects on the project, her experience being at #Antenna2017, as well as the importance of the platform provided by Dutch Design Week and Design Indaba: "Antenna helps you broaden your horizons and scope of what you see as design."

There is a huge world of design that is left untapped and we should continue to reach out and work with others.

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