We will be presenting results of Anathema at the IPOS congress in an oral presentation. n this presentation, we will be sharing with the audience some lessons learned from conducting a feasibility pilot randomised controlled trial of Anathema in Portugal with colorectal cancer survivors.

Anathema is being tested with several participants in Portugal, in Austria and in the Netherlands in a randomised controlled trial. Results are expected later this year.

The Anathema app has its website for future commercialisation of the technology. The app is available in English, European Portuguese, Dutch and German and can be used on Android and iOS smartphones.

The organisers of the Zlín Design Week have invited us to present Anathema in this year’s event. On May 9 we will be talking about the process of design research for Anathema, in particular, about it informed inclusive design. Later the same day we will be holding a workshop for attendants to try out the methods we developed in the design research process.

Longitudinal UX testing of the Anathema app has begun. For circa one week, participants over 55 years of age in Portugal and in the Netherlands will be interacting with app at their own pace.

Participants’ feedback will allow the consortium to understand whether the app is useful and easy to use, as well as which are the most important aspects to improve before the pilot studies kick-off in early January.

Diogo Coutinho successfully defended his MSc thesis in Service Engineering and Management at the University of Porto with a high grade.

Diogo contributed to Anathema by helping to understand how to appropriately conduct user research around stigmatising topics and with vulnerable populations. Furthermore, the work also helped identify relevant aspects for the delivery of Anathema as a service, i.e. Awareness and Channels, Consideration ad Conversion.

Anathema participated in the 11th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) with a communication about the findings from the first online survey launched in the Netherlands.

The communication entitled “Older adults’ acceptability of smartphone-based sexual health promotion programs” received a best poster award. You can read the poster in the image below.

KBO hosted Anathema’s latest General Assembly meeting in the beautiful city of Utrecht.

During the two-day meeting, on September 1-2, we looked at our project’s health and used the time for hands-on work around details to improve in the mobile app, details of the pilot studies which will be starting later this year and all the important aspects of the business and exploitation plans. We advanced quite a lot and have many actions outlined for the next months.

Anathema will be presented in two important venues.

On September 19-21, we will be in Pittsburgh, USA, to take part in the 11^th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) showcasing Anathema’s app in a live demonstration, as well as presenting a poster entitled ‘Older adults’ acceptability of a smartphone-based sexual health promotion programe’ about the result of an online questionnaire to 1.119 older adults in the Netherlands.

On September 22-23, we head to London, UK, to take part in Include 2022, a renowned conference about Inclusive Design. Here we will present the paper ‘Towards the inclusive design of a digital sexual health promotion programme’ in which we describe the user research process followed by the team to date and recommendations for Anathema’s app behaviour.

Our student, Diogo Moutinho, is holding workshops with Portuguese older adults from COLABORAR to explore functionalities of Anathema, as well as customer journey aspects. These will help to inform the customer service. With the workshops, Diogo is also testing how to address taboo topics in older adult groups.