CuraVias

Inspiration

Our inspiration came from recognizing how climate change directly impacts human health, especially among vulnerable populations. During the record-breaking heat waves this past summer, one of our team members’ colleagues faced serious pregnancy complications, leading to bed rest due to dehydration and risk of pre-term labor. This personal story highlighted a critical gap: patients and clinicians lack timely, actionable information about environmental health risks.

What it does

CuraVias is a digital health platform that combines patient medical risk factors with real-time severe weather data to send personalized health alerts. Patients receive proactive text messages with tailored recommendations (e.g., hydration, nearby cooling centers, when to seek care), while providers see a dashboard to triage which patients are most at risk. This helps reduce preventable ER visits and supports healthier outcomes during climate-related events.

How we built it

We started by identifying a high-impact use case: pregnant patients during extreme heat events. We designed an alert flow that integrates with secure patient messaging systems (like MyChart) and built a provider dashboard prototype. Our system uses an AI-driven feedback loop that refines alerting and targeting over time, learning from patient responses and outcomes. The build process combined:

Weather API + risk factor overlay
Patient SMS interaction mockups
A clinician dashboard concept for triage
Privacy and HIPAA-compliant design considerations

Challenges we ran into

Integrating real-time weather data with clinical risk factors in a meaningful, HIPAA-safe way.
Designing alerts that are simple and actionable, without overwhelming patients.
Demonstrating value to multiple stakeholders: patients, providers, and insurers.
Balancing rapid prototyping at a hackathon with the complexity of healthcare regulations.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Created a working patient alert prototype with interactive responses.
Designed a clinician dashboard that surfaces patient risk in real time.
Aligned our system with existing health infrastructure (MyChart, EMRs) for smoother adoption.
Built a solution that addresses not only a technical challenge but also a human story: reducing risks for vulnerable patients during climate crises.

What we learned

Extreme weather isn’t just an environmental issue; it’s a direct health crisis.
How to design around HIPAA, privacy, and usability constraints simultaneously.
That patients and providers need different but complementary alert systems.
Building with scalability in mind is critical: starting with pregnancy, but adaptable to elderly care, chronic disease, and broader climate risks.

What's next for CuraVias

Pilot program with OB/GYN partners to test alerts with pregnant patients.
Collect health outcomes data (e.g., pre-term delivery rates, ER visits) to validate impact.
Expand patient groups to include the elderly and chronic disease populations most at risk from climate change.
Refine AI models with more data to improve personalization and predictive accuracy.
Partner with insurers and public health agencies to scale CuraVias across communities nationwide.