Linking the mobile app with weather information from the UK Met Office, the research is also hoping to uncover associations between Ménière’s and meteorological conditions, a move that could see the tool send out early warning messages to people.

The collaboration has proved pivotal for Buzz Interactive, giving them invaluable experience in eHealth and spring-boarding their expansion into the health and wellbeing sector. Lindsey Axten, Director at Buzz, said:

“As a result of our work with the University of Exeter, Buzz is now well positioned to make a move into the eHealth sector. Our success with the Ménière’s application has highlighted how technology can improve patient health and wellbeing, and we’re really proud to be playing an integral role in this kind of collaborative research.”

By involving patients and participants in the way the tool is developed, this project has also had a profound effect on the people taking part. Gerald Pitts has suffered from Ménière’s for 6 years and believes the study has given hope to sufferers of the condition, “When I was first diagnosed with Ménière’s I felt incredibly isolated. Being part of this project has allowed me to feed into the design of the application and offered hope that we’ll be able to improve our understanding of this chronic illness - and give people some quality of life back.”

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