FibroFly

A platform that works to improve the quality of life of people with fibromyalgia syndrome, through self-help and the development of physical and mental abilities.

International studies suggest that fibromyalgia affects 7% to 10% of the world population, mainly women between 35 and 50 years old. Its prevalence is high and in Brazil it is estimated at 3% of the Brazilian population, equivalent to 6.279 million people (data provided by the Ministry of Health).

Fibromyalgia syndrome is a clinical condition characterized by chronic generalized pain usually associated with fatigue, sleep disturbances and cognitive symptoms such as depression and anxiety, which causes great limitation for carriers to perform any functions. Despite the constant pain in almost the entire body, patients do not present injury, inflammation or tissue degeneration, being considered an invisible chronic illness, as it is difficult to diagnose.

FibroFly was developed to improve the quality of life of patients with fibromyalgia. For this, our mobile-app acts directly on self-care, with the main objective of avoiding the limitation of fibromyalgia patients and allowing them to live better with the disease.

Our app's functionalities were based on six fundamental pillars of well-being: nutrition tips and calculation of BMI (Body Mass Index), as a balanced diet allows the synthesis of neurotransmitters that promotes well-being; a series of aerobic physical exercises and meditations that provide mental and physiological strengthening; graphs that show the evolution of the patient according to the practices carried out in the platform, and the emotional state inserted daily by the user, being a essential tool for the doctor-patient relationship; daily motivational phrases about living with the syndrome and; an area for the user to have direct contact with specialists registered on the platform. All health-related features were built with expert input.

The solution began to be developed in 2019 in a technical education environment integrated with high school in Sao Paulo, Brazil, through the Thunkable tool. In 2020, it was developed in a more professional way and is now available for download in Brazil on the Play Store via the link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fibrofly.fibrofly. 

For the current development, we use Cordova technology (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), which allows the use in IOS and Android, and connecting it with the cloud database. In addition, we implement Firebase as a cloud database.

The study “The prevalence of fibromyalgia in Brazil”, carried out by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), pointed out that, in Brazil, it is estimated that there are 4 million people with this condition. Of those, between 75% and 90% are women, most of whom fall within the 30 to 55 age group. From this, it is concluded that the user segment is focused on this target audience. In addition, a report by Flurry Analytics shows that health and fitness apps have users between 34 and 54 years old and are growing at a faster pace than the global app market in 2014. 

FibroFly has pillars of well-being, with functions such as: motivational phrases, physical exercises, meditation, nutrition tips and personal progress graphs for individual monitoring or with medical assistance. Resources were guided by health experts in order to provide the best experience for users. It is worth noting that FibroFly's main objective is to help the patient to live well with their clinical condition, both mentally and physically.

The problem arose from the life experience of one of our members, Lívia Rodrigues, who has a direct relationship with a fibromyalgia patient in her family, her mother. Lívia told us about some difficulties surrounding her mother’s reality. This made us seriously ponder the subject. In this context, we conducted research on fibromyalgia, approached communities of those who suffer from the disease and concluded that this syndrome makes up a larger group of people than we imagined. In Brazil alone, the syndrome affects about 3% of the total population. Therefore, the need for a solution that helps improve the quality of life of people with the syndrome became evident. Thus, we believe that our product fulfills its potential to make an increasing difference in the lives of people with fibromyalgia.

In addition, the project has a history of victories and achievements. The idea came up in early 2019, when we applied to an international competition called Technovation Challenge. The team managed to win the position of national semifinalist, winning medals of honor for each member of the group and a trophy. Afterwards, we decided to submit our project to Inova Jovem, an innovation competition at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP). We won first place and received a check in the amount of 5,000 reais. With that, our project was widely publicized on Instagram pages and physical and digital newspapers, to which the fibromyalgia community established its first contact with the project. Also in 2019, we won the entrepreneurship award at the Science and Technology Fair of the IFSP campus Bragança Paulista (Bragantec) with the award of three Kindles and medals. With the network we created with the judges of the Inova Jovem competition, we accredited two graduation proposals that were very significant and helped us in the future with the publication of the app on the Google Play Store. 

In 2020, Fibrofly participated again in the Science and Technology Fair of the IFSP campus Bragança Paulista (Bragantec) and received the public's choice award. This year we also received the tribute “Junta Somos Força” from Força Meninas in which we won physical prizes such as a Google Home and also a female support network. I highlight that on this trip we flew specialized mentorships and contributed with lectures and symposiums in which we reported and exchanged our experiences, such as at The Dev Conference in 2022 and at the event “Sala de Aula de Futuro - Active Methodologies Promoting the Inclusion of Women in Technology” in 2020 .

This track record emphasizes all the dedication and efforts of the team in promoting significant changes and encouraging more and more young girls, lile us, to develop solutions that can change the world. We are immensely grateful for the entire support network: parents, teachers, mentors and partners, who helped us and help make this dream possible.

At first, a bibliographic survey was carried out to find out what the main needs of the fibromyalgia population are. In addition, Lívia's mother acted as a potential user for the application's development, which made it possible to get to know her pains and anxieties up close.

For broader knowledge, a self-assessment form was developed for the target audience, disseminated on FibroFly's social networks and filled out on a large scale, with the result of approximately 200 responses. Of these, 98% said they would use an application to help them live well with the disease.

With this, graphic data was obtained that helped guide how the application would be and what functions it offered. In addition, the User Experience (UX) and User Interface Design, branding, logo and slogan development were directly designed for the target audience. It is worth mentioning that the application development team also takes into account data provided by the Google Play Store, such as the five-star rating and the result of more than 500 application downloads.

FibroFly is a self-help app with representativeness and an important differential, compared to the benchmark of platforms present in the current market.

In addition to the well-being and quality of life promotion functions, the app offers graphs that are formed from the patient's evolution according to the practices carried out in the platform, being an essential tool for the doctor-patient relationship.

This fact underscores one of the main purposes of the project: to enable fibromyalgia sufferers to live well with the disease, by easily identifying improvements to be made according to their individuality and context.

1. Promote partner ads in the current version of FibroFly, with solutions that can help with the disease while providing financial return to the company: feasibility study, financial return planning and attracting partners.

2. Reach 2,000 users in Brazil in August 2023: develop marketing actions and win publicity partnerships.

3. Start development of the premium version of the app: study new functions, target audience reviews and develop the version with more apps and ad-free.

4. Create a community among people with fibromyalgia on social networks, to strengthen their bonds and share tips that help with the disease: create weekly content to feed FibroFly's social networks and generate interaction and engagement.

The app was developed using Apache Cordova, which allows creating hybrid applications for different mobile platforms based on the WebView component. In this way, we use HTML, CSS and JavaScript for the Front-end, with the help of the Framework7 tool for styling the interface.

The Back-end was made in the cloud through Firebase, a tool created by Google for the best performance of web and mobile applications with several functions to increase the user base. Some of the functionalities used are:

Firebase Authentication: user registration via email or profile on other social networks, password recovery and account confirmation.

Firebase Realtime: storage of information to generate the progress chart and daily motivational phrases for users.

Currently, according to data provided by the Google Play Store, the application has more than 500 downloads. The goal is to reach 2 thousand users in Brazil in August 2023, with a projection of 500 new users annually.

The main barriers currently faced are those of implementing the ad system in the app, that is, creating a source of income and profitability and all the legal bureaucracy that involves this process.

Another aspect is to obtain investment capital for the company, whether through angel investors, private companies or acceleration programs, in order to be able to develop the solution more safely and reach more people through disclosures and promotion actions. 

Currently, the solution does not have any private partnership, other than those mentioned in the part of the employees who work as technological supporters and in the health area. However, it is worth mentioning that throughout our trajectory many institutions were essential for the construction of FibroFly, such as the IFSP-campus Bragança Paulista that provided space, equipment and mentoring, the company Oracle that provided training and mentors for the development of the project and the Sabiá agency that provided financial help to make the platform available on the Google Play Store.

The main clients and beneficiaries are women with fibromyalgia, aged between 30 and 55 years. Based on this, the solution offered is an app that assists in the well-being of this target audience, undertaking self-help and self-care activities to help people with fibromyalgia live better with the disease through fundamental pillars of well-being. Such as good nutrition, physical exercise, meditation, personal progress and motivational phrases. These tools were planned based on reports from the solution's target audience, which detailed how difficult it is to deal with an incurable pathology, which manifests itself through physical and psychological pain that conventional drugs and the most used treatments do not solve. In this way, the construction and combination of strategies that can improve mental health (such as meditation audios), help physical health and endorphin release (through recommended exercises) and also inform about inflammatory foods that can influence the quality of their lives, were undertaken in a single solution, FibroFly.

Currently, the main plan for financial sustainability of the solution is inserting ads in our free app. Through the exposure of ads from interested and reliable brands that will pay the team a stipulated amount, which will depend on the size of the ad and other variables.

In addition to this situation, the creation of the Premium version of FibroFly is also being studied, in which exclusive functions and the exemption of advertisements can be added.

Social Business Model Canvas: