Solas Online Community Project Wins Changing Tomorrow Award

Posted on: 07 February 2011

Solas, a virtual community for children with chronic illnesses, developed by Trinity College’s Centre for Health Informatics, recently beat off competition from over 100 nominees to win the Astellas Changing Tomorrow Award.  The awards were set up to recognise exceptional work being undertaken by professionals working in health, and highlight their commitment and day-to-day effort in the improvement of the provision of healthcare for patients in Ireland. 

Solas is an online communications and creativity community for sick children suffering from childhood cancers and blood disorders at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.  The Solas project works to decrease the psycho-social effects of hospitalisation by providing a facility for communication, entertainment and creativity.  A particular target group of Solas are those whose conditions necessitate them to be in protective isolation.  Solas aims to empower these children to combat some of the medical and emotional challenges that accompany chronic illness and reduce their sense of isolation.  Using new social media technologies Solas provides a variety of resources to support communication with family at home, friends at school or sharing experiences with others going through similar experiences.   

Paula Hicks, Solas Project Manager, Centre for Health Informatics, Trinity College Dublin.

Solas is currently available at the Children’s Cancer Unit of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.  A wireless virtual private network has been setup and a selection of laptops are available for use on the ward, allowing these sick children to communicate with one another within the hospital and with their families at home via email, video conferencing and live chat over a secure internet environment in the wards.   To date there have been over 300 registered users.

The Solas project was developed by TCD’s Centre for Health Informatics in conjunction with the School of Computer Science and Statistics.  Key personnel in the project include Director of the Centre for Health Informatics, Professor Jane Grimson, along with Professor of Childhood Blood Disorders at TCD and Consultant Paediatric Haematologist at Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, Professor Owen Smith.