Grant Philip Cumming*, nhs, Elgin, United Kingdom Nedkov Stanislav, Moray College, Elgin, United Kingdom Mcconachie Mark, Moray College, Elgin, United Kingdom Brooks Elizabeth, University of Highlands and Islands, Elgin, United Kingdom Beattie Paul, Moray College, Elgin, United Kingdom Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Consumer empowerment, patient-physician relationship, and sociotechnical issues Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Building: MECC Room: Trajectum Last modified: 2010-08-27

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In 2008 we presented “e-health in a Remote and Rural Setting in the North of Scotland - An Evolving Success Story”. The story continues! An online survey involving the local newspaper suggested that 33% of respondents would not go out if they were not sure a toilet would be available. Publicly available toilets are important to all of us. Since 1997, 1,310 public toilets in the UK have closed (16% reduction). Costs of not providing toilets can be measured in terms of street fouling and isolation of vulnerable groups. Potentially they become housebound with a resulting impact on their social wellbeing, physical, emotional and mental health.

Healthcare is becoming increasingly expensive, making current models of treatment ultimately unsustainable. Not only must there be a change in how healthcare is provided (from treatment to prevention), there must be an increasing emphasis on the individual to take responsibility for their own health (self care/empowerment), if healthcare is to meet the needs of everyone and be free at the point of delivery (NHS core principles). Web applications such as ToiletFinder are empowering the public to influence the health care agenda.
The ToiletFinder web and mobile application were developed using an “agile” development methodology. During this process the client became part of the development team and the definition for the application was developed in discrete steps, allowing the team to change and assess functionality very quickly.

ToiletFinder is powered by the Ruby programming language and the
Rails framework, helping the team to follow industry best practices
and quickly adapt to changes presented during the evolution of the
project. External data sources were used from organisations e.g Google,
allowing the team to concentrate on the parts of the application that
made it unique while tailoring external data such as “maps” to achieve
tasks that would have been too large for a small team to tackle alone.

ToletFinder’s underlying modus operandi utilises “the wisdom of the crowd” and its philosophy is very much for the people by the people, connecting and collaborating using the power of the internet. The public populates ToiletFinder with locations and details of publicly available toilets.

In addition a star rating system shows at a glance what to expect. This will be the catalyst for councils and organisations to improve their facilities where necessary. A historical rating system will show recent scores so that people can see how toilets have improved (or not) in response to public comment.

ToiletFinder has potential to make big contributions to the wellness / self care agenda, to the quality of life agenda, to the public health agenda, to tourism and ultimately to the tax payer. Health Webscience seeks to understand the web at the micro and macro levels and aims to ensure that web applications and the emergent behaviours that arise from the user’s interactions at the macro level “first do no harm” (Hippocrates).

The experience of ToiletFinder from its soft launch, to its public launch within a webscience framework will be discussed.