Informed Consent

My Journey Creating Informed Consent

Inspiration The idea for Informed Consent was born from a deeply personal realization. After witnessing friends navigate the often uncomfortable conversations around sexual health status and consent, I recognized a critical gap in our digital tools. While we have apps for nearly everything in our lives, the most intimate and important conversations were still happening without technological support. The statistics around STIs and the persistent stigma surrounding sexual health conversations convinced me that technology could play a vital role in fostering healthier, more transparent relationships.

What it does Informed Consent is a comprehensive mobile application that empowers users to manage their sexual health with dignity and privacy. The app provides several core functionalities:

Secure Consent Management: Users can create and verify consent agreements using blockchain-secured QR codes that are time-stamped and immutable.

Health Status Tracking: The app allows users to securely store and share their sexual health testing history and results with potential partners.

Emergency Safety Features: A distress signal system with location sharing that can alert emergency contacts if a user feels unsafe.

Partner Communication: Anonymous notification system that allows users to alert previous partners about potential health concerns while maintaining privacy.

Health Service Locator: Helps users find nearby sexual health clinics, testing centers, and resources.

How we built it I built Informed Consent entirely using bolt.new, using React Native with Expo, which allowed for rapid development across iOS, Android, and web platforms. The architecture prioritizes privacy and security at every level:

Frontend: React Native with Expo Router for navigation and Lucide icons for a clean, professional UI Data Security: End-to-end encryption using CryptoJS for all sensitive data Storage: Secure local storage with chunking support for larger datasets Authentication: Multi-factor authentication with biometric support Blockchain Integration: Private blockchain implementation for immutable consent records Internationalization: Support for 7 languages using i18next Monetization: RevenueCat integration for subscription management

The app follows a modular architecture with clear separation of concerns between UI components, business logic, and data services. This approach allowed me to maintain code quality while rapidly iterating on features.

Challenges we ran into

Building Informed Consent presented several significant challenges:

Privacy vs. Functionality: Balancing robust privacy protections with useful features was a constant tension. Every feature had to be evaluated through the lens of "could this compromise user privacy?"

Sensitive UX Design: Creating interfaces that handled intimate topics with appropriate sensitivity required multiple design iterations and careful user testing.

Cross-Platform Security: Implementing consistent encryption and secure storage across web and mobile platforms proved technically challenging.

Regulatory Compliance: Navigating HIPAA requirements and privacy regulations across different jurisdictions required extensive research and legal consultation.

Blockchain Implementation: Creating a lightweight blockchain solution that could work efficiently on mobile devices while providing the security guarantees needed for consent verification.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Despite these challenges, I'm particularly proud of several achievements:

Zero-Knowledge Architecture: The app's design ensures that even we as developers cannot access users' sensitive data.

Inclusive Design: The app was built with accessibility and inclusivity at its core, supporting diverse gender identities, sexual orientations, and relationship structures.

Global Reach: With support for 7 languages covering over 2.3 billion native speakers, the app can serve communities worldwide.

Ethical Monetization: The business model respects user privacy while still providing a sustainable path forward through optional premium features.

Community Feedback Integration: The development process incorporated feedback from sexual health educators, healthcare providers, and potential users.

What we learned

This project taught me invaluable lessons about:

The intersection of technology and intimate human experiences: Technology can play a positive role in even our most personal interactions when designed with empathy.

Security-first development: Building with privacy as the foundation rather than an afterthought changes the entire development approach.

Cross-cultural considerations: Sexual health conversations vary dramatically across cultures, requiring nuanced localization beyond mere translation.

The importance of user trust: For an app dealing with such sensitive information, establishing and maintaining user trust is paramount.

Balancing innovation with responsibility: The project reinforced that technological innovation must be guided by ethical considerations and potential real-world impacts.

What's next for Informed Consent

The future roadmap for Informed Consent includes: Expanded Healthcare Integrations: Direct connections with testing facilities to automatically and securely import test results.

Enhanced AI Risk Assessment: More sophisticated health risk analysis using machine learning while preserving privacy.

Community Resources: Adding educational content and resources about sexual health, consent, and communication.

Telemedicine Integration: Connecting users with healthcare providers for virtual consultations.

Research Partnerships: Collaborating with public health researchers to provide anonymized, aggregated insights that could inform better sexual health policies and education.

The ultimate vision is to create a world where conversations about sexual health are normalized, consent is unambiguous, and technology serves as a trusted ally in fostering healthier, safer intimate relationships.

Built With

• a
• all
• and
• api
• app
• architecture
• camera
• camera:
• data
• encryption
• end-to-end
• expo-sdk-52-navigation:-expo-router-4.0-ui-components:-custom-react-native-components-icons:-lucide-react-native-internationalization:-i18next-with-support-for-7-languages-security:-cryptojs-for-encryption
• expo.io
• for
• healthcare
• hipaa-compliant
• implements
• integration
• javascript-frameworks:-react-native
• languages:-typescript
• location
• monetization:
• native
• notifications
• notifications:
• react
• react-testing-library-apis:-custom-blockchain-api
• revenuecat
• securestore-for-storage-authentication:-custom-biometric-integration-state-management:-react-hooks-and-context-testing:-jest
• security
• sensitive
• services:
• stylesheet
• styling:
• subscriptions
• the
• uses
• with
• zero-knowledge