HealthClear

A listing of the results for a search query on "lipids"

Inspiration

In 2018, the US National Health Expenditure as a percentage of GDP was at a staggering high of 18.2%, over 3 times more than it was in 1960. In short, America has an issue in price transparency—many citizens, especially those in low-income situations, have trouble navigating our nation's needlessly complex healthcare system.

To complicate matters more, different care centers charge drastically different prices for the same treatment. For example, in New York an echocardiogram cost $2150 at a hospital in Brooklyn, but just a few miles away cost only $200. Sadly, this isn't an exception — its the norm. That's where we come in.

What it does

HealthClear is simple and easy-to-use web application that allows users to search for treatments ranging from blood tests to vaccines, and even full surgeries by using an intuitive search interface. HealthClear then quickly displays cost data from nearby treatment centers on an interactive map, where the user can easily call an Uber straight from the site.

How we built it

Combining APIs from Uber, Google, and the Snapchat SDK, HealthClear combs through a third-party database of hospital data to find the most affordable and convenient options for a user.

Challenges we ran into

We had trouble standardizing JSON outputs and then fetching them from our server. We tried various techniques to request the data over several hours but ended up realizing that our browser was the one blocking our requests. We were very frustrated.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of how we were able weave together complex tools and ideas with barely a plan, and even less experience. But hey, it worked!

What's next for HealthClear

Initially, we planned on making HealthClear a personalized experience by calculating treatment costs via a user's specific insurance coverage but we found that integrating insurance calculations was far too difficult. In the future it will have a user dashboard that provides personalized patient information.