A Melbourne Design Week Q&A on how design, technology, and lived experience form My Health Story to improve the quality of care.
My Health Story: Healthtech Powered by Lived Experience
My Health Story (MHS) is a digital platform that empowers people to organise, reflect on, and communicate their health information across their care journey. Founded by artist and chronic pain advocate Soula Mantalvanos and co-directed with her husband and carer, Theo Mantalvanos, MHS was born from lived experience: years of misdiagnosis, chronic pain, and navigating fragmented healthcare systems revealed design failures that inspired a patient-centred solution.
Questions about the level of care during the 4.5 years of misdiagnosis were endless and continue to this day.
Presented as part of Melbourne Design Week’s Tech-support stream, this professionally facilitated Q&A places lived experience at the centre of digital design. Soula and Theo will share the origin story, the role of caregiving, and how their experiences shaped a platform that improves communication, reduces administrative burden, and gives individuals more control over their care.
The audience is invited to the conversation – please prepare your questions.
The Q&A session aims to explore healthcare as a design problem, demonstrating how putting individuals at the centre of their care improves access to information, enhances coordination, and drives better outcomes.
Key themes include;
Facilitator Gabriel Edwards will invite audience participation, offering insights for designers, healthcare professionals, and investors interested in lived-experience-led healthtech that delivers measurable impact.
Selected for MDW’s Tech-support stream, Design the World You Want demonstrates how design thinking, applied to real human experience, can create a healthier, more connected healthcare system — and a compelling opportunity for innovation, partnership and investment.
Ticket-holders are encouraged to email questions ahead of the Q&A session to hello@myhealthstory.com.au
