Digital Health Startup, Gabadoo, wins Digital Impact of the Year

Gabadoo, a digital health start-up from Cork has won the ‘Digital Impact of the Year’ on the 8th of February of 2022, beating Irish Life health, Taxback.com, SEAI and Huggnote. The award from Digital Business Ireland was created by Jess Kennedy and Seán Ó Tuama to resolve the problem of accessing Allied Healthcare professionals such as Occupational Therapists and Speech and Language Therapists.

With families unable to support and many spending years on waiting lists, Gabadoo has offered support within 72 hours, leading to a huge demand for the platform from families across Ireland and the UK.

Gabadoo Experts

With this digital health company, families can decide an area they are looking for support with, for example, handwriting, bed-time routines, sensory processing, or expressive language. They then give very detailed information about why it’s a problem of theirs and upload videos and images highlighting the concern, if they want to. Once submitted to the platform, the information is matched to an expert team member who is experienced in the area, they are looking for support. Parents will then receive a Gaba Plan back, within 72 hours typically, that specifies how to support their child and the next steps they should take.

“By creating a new model of practice for Allied Healthcare professionals which is completely flexible and remote, and removing some of the inefficiencies from traditional methods of practice, Gabadoo’s innovative platform is changing the typical way in which families can access support,” said Seán Ó Tuama, co-founder of Gabadoo.

The Allied Healthcare professionals made this possible, by joining Gabadoo and creating the platform a success. A strong community has emerged and all the therapists on the company learn and help each other. The team has grown to be the largest source of Paediatric Allied Health support in Europe within a matter of months.

“Working as a clinician has shown me the importance of educating and empowering parents with information relevant to their child, a strengths-based approach to skill development, and building solutions around existing family routines. Gabadoo also allows families to access support when they need it which can dramatically reduce additional stress and anxiety that comes with waiting for support” said Jess Kennedy, who is an Occupational Therapist and co-founder of Gabadoo.

Gabadoo is currently trialling with families, and it has been met with overwhelming positivity. The company’s name comes from the ‘Gaba’, which is a neurotransmitter in the brain that helps to reduce stress and anxiety, and this is the exact reason Gabadoo was created.