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Medicinal Dispenser
Empowering Generations
By Team: Gitpush
Inspiration
Our inspiration came from observing the daily struggles of seniors in Singapore, especially those living at home or in elderly homes. In an aging population in Singapore, many seniors struggle to remember to take medicines. This may lead to caregivers micromanaging their lifestyles, which causes seniors to lose a sense of purpose in life. At the same time, caregivers and volunteers spend long hours manually checking and distributing medicines, often feeling overworked. Although caregiving is often an act of love, but it often comes at the cost of exhaustion and broken work-life balance.
We wanted to design something that not only reduces this workload, but more importantly empowers seniors to take ownership of their own health, building dignity, independence and confidence.
What it does
Our project includes a hardware driven solution that allows seniors to collect their medicines independently, which seamlessly integrates into our platform aimed to connect both the seniors and their caretakers together.
Our project includes a smart medicine dispenser combined with a staff tracking software. The dispenser automatically provides the correct medicine at the right time.
A connected dashboard allows caretakers (including their family members or volunteers from elderly homes) to monitor medicinal adherence without micromanaging. Not only does this frees up time for caretakers from manual labor, it empowers seniors to take ownership of their own health.
Families can view logs, creating trust and transparency without micromanaging their loved ones.
How we built it
We designed a physical dispenser unit with compartments to put different medicines, controlled by an ESP32. Residents can tap their unique RFID card onto the medicine dispenser and collect their respective medicines. The dispenser is connected to the staff website, to track whether they have taken their medicine.
The website is built with HTML, CSS and Javascript for the frontend, and flask with minimal nodejs for the backend. Both ESP32 and the website are connected via a SQLite database.
Challenges we ran into
One challenge we ran into was trying to connect the SQLite database from the flask website to the microcontroller, given the limited time that we have to finish the project. We are grateful to have been mentored by our inspiring SUTD mentors along the way to help ensure that everything works.
Another challenge was balancing technical reliability with ease of use. We had to make sure the dispenser is accurate and secure, yet simple enough for elderly users who may not be tech-savvy
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We're proud that our prototype doesn't just solve a administrative problem, it addresses a deeper social issue. By encouraging seniors to take their own medicine, we are promoting dignity and independence. Our solution aims to transform medicine taking from a stress routine into an act of empowerment.
What we learned
We have learnt to use technology driven solutions to solve real world problems, especially in the context of aging population
How to run it
docker run -p 5000:5000 chunhoesdocker/wth_empowering_generation
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