Within half an hour of going live, the Project Big Life website crashed. The sheer number of people logging on to try out it was more than the server could handle.
Since then, millions of people from all over the world have flocked to the website to find out how their daily habits are affecting their lifespans.
Project Big Life was developed by senior scientist Dr. Doug Manuel and his colleagues at The Ottawa Hospital in partnership with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Public Health Ontario and was included in a report that found Ontarians’ unhealthy habits were costing them an estimated seven years of life.
The project’s user-friendly calculators act like virtual health assessments, allowing people to estimate disease risk, life expectancy, and even analyze diet quality based on age, lifestyle, and health history. With this knowledge, people can then make informed decisions about their well-being.
It’s also used by doctors and researchers, and the project has given the hospital the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues at various research institutes, including Bruyère Research Institute, UBC, Ontario Tech, and uToronto.
“It’s about seeing that impact,” says Dr. Manuel, “so we can discuss how to make those healthy choices easy choices.”
