TIME Magazine names My Special Aflac Duck one of the “Best Inventions 2018”

TIME Magazine Best Inventions 2018

TIME Magazine recently released its collection of Best Inventions 2018. The list includes inventions from health & wellness to food & drink, gear & gadget to sustainability & social good. Among the Sustainability & Social Good category winners, is Aflac’s My Special Aflac Duck.

My Special Aflac Duck is a “smart” comforting companion, available via participating hospitals, free of charge to every child, ages 3-13, who has cancer. With four patents pending, lifelike movement and emotions, and a mixed-reality app, this innovative social robot uses interactive play to help distract children coping with cancer.

My Special Aflac Duck is designed to help provide comforting and entertaining experiences during cancer treatment. My Special Aflac Duck’s core functions include: medical play, feeding and bathing; music and singing; emotional expression and soothing heartbeats and nuzzling.

Aflac’s goal is to put a My Special Aflac Duck in the hands of the nearly 16,000 children in the U.S. who are newly diagnosed with cancers each year, free of charge, so that no child ever has to face cancer alone.

Duck Deliveries

My Special Aflac Ducks are landing at member Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals across the country in special “duck delivery” events. So far, patients at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in Atlanta, GA, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN, Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital in Columbia, SC, and Children’s Hospital in New Orleans have participated in these Duck Delivery events.

Patients at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center in Atlanta were first to receive their My Special Aflac Ducks. Below, Aflac Chairman and CEO, Dan Amos, is pictured with a CHOA patient.

A 4-year old cancer patient at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans becomes fast friends with his My Special Aflac Duck.

In Nashville, patients and hospital staff came together for their special Duck Delivery.

Patients, Aflac leadership, and Palmetto Health Children’s Hospital leadership gathered in Columbia, SC for a Duck Delivery event. This event included special guest, Aaron Horowitz, CEO of Sproutel, the company with which Aflac partnered to design My Special Aflac Duck.

My Special Aflac Duck at your hospital

Member CMN Hospitals can register to order My Special Aflac Ducks online at http://aflacchildhoodcancer.org/myduck. My Special Aflac Duck needs to be ordered by caregivers and/or medical or hospital staff members, and cannot be ordered by patients directly. Ideally, the My Special Aflac Duck is ordered directly by Child Life, Pediatric Oncology staff, and/or your key foundation staff.  Once your profile is approved, you will be able to order My Special Aflac Ducks for patients treated at your hospital.

As My Special Aflac Ducks are distributed to patients at your hospitals, please share stories and testimonials about the impact. Stories and photos can be submitted to Alayne Gamache, AGamache@aflac.com.

Thank you to Aflac for their ongoing support of CMN Hospitals and particularly for their commitment to the fight against pediatric cancer.