Jennifer Ferger completed her master's degree in communication design at the University of Applied Sciences in Düsseldorf, for which she dealt extensively with the disease neurodermatitis. Her intermedia all-round package entitled "nera - In balance with you" is intended to help sufferers live without symptoms. In terms of design, it covers topics from UI/UX design, corporate design, product design and conception and is based on artificial intelligence.
As a holistic concept for neurodermatitis sufferers, nera is a prime example of digital health, i.e. the interdisciplinary combination of healthcare with digital medical and wellness technologies. This should not only improve the efficiency of healthcare and use medicines more effectively, but also enable more individualized treatments. "Artificial intelligence in the medical field can use scientific questions and data analysis to learn how to make a patient's everyday life easier and improve their quality of life," says Jennifer Ferger. "It is a pioneering form of treatment and a way of helping atopic dermatitis sufferers to alleviate and combat the symptoms of their disease."
This can be particularly useful for the chronic, itchy skin disease atopic dermatitis. Although there are certain factors that promote the disease and make people more susceptible, the exact causes of atopic dermatitis have not yet been fully understood and are highly individual. For some people, the main factor is stress, which can affect the immune system and cause the body to produce more inflammatory reactions. Other sufferers react with atopic dermatitis symptoms due to certain foods such as dairy products, wheat or eggs. Still others experience flare-ups because they suffer from other allergies and their body reacts to certain substances, such as pollen or animal hair, which in turn can trigger skin reactions and itching. Digital health can therefore provide support when it comes to identifying and ultimately treating individual problems.
When developing nera, Jennifer Ferger took into account various areas such as skin, fitness, nutrition and emotions, which are interdependent for neurodermatitis sufferers. "The balance of these areas is important for a balanced and symptom-free life," says the designer. The nera app uses AI to visualize the data for the user, provides information on causes and gives recommendations for treatment. It can even make a relapse prediction.
The app is supported by smart gadgets, such as a link to the smart watch, which can be used to quickly track when changes occur or the skin becomes particularly vulnerable. Jennifer Ferger explains how this works: "The intelligent mirror makes it easier to track the skin with a full-body scan. The AI recognizes how many areas of skin are affected and how severely, and indicates the trend of atopic dermatitis. It can also be used smartly for fitness, yoga and meditation."
She has also developed her own products for nera that make daily fitness and wellness activities easier - fitness mats, yoga blocks or PH skin-neutral and moisturizing care products. It has even thought about nutrition - with the help of an AI-based photo function, food photos can be scanned and the ingredients identified, which the app saves. Ideally, this can help prevent atopic dermatitis in the event of intolerances and dietary preferences with customized food boxes.
Jennifer Ferger says that she spoke to many neurodermatitis sufferers at her exhibition and received positive feedback from them.
The freelance designer prefers to work on cross-media concepts and is at home in both digital and print. Find out more about her work here.
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