Hospital Buddiez

Inspiration

COVID isolation has given us a sense of what patients confined in hospitals must feel like. The limited interaction and the physical barriers has inspired a solution of contactless connection among not just COVID patients, but all patients alike. Connecting people together who are able to empathize with each other's situations is incredibly valuable and may provide some sense of relief for those who cannot easily reach out for support.

What it does

Hospital Buddiez provides patients who are admitted in a hospital a safe space, allowing them to connect with other patients through forums, events, or direct messaging. It also allows them to stay up to date with recent events, find social activities, and make new friends during their stay. Past patients can also share their experience and insight about their stay, helping current patients get through a hard time.

How we built it

We created a mock up of our ideas and developed them on Adobe XD. As we expanded on details, we made use of PaintTool SAI, an advanced drawing and editing tool, to edit certain photos and tailor them to our project.

Challenges we ran into

As we were brainstorming our ideas for this challenge, we had to decide upon the scope of our app--would it be a global, country-wide, or hospital-limited application? This rose more questions we had to dissect and consider carefully such as: Who was our app really for? What are the security risks? What are we promoting? Who is able to use this app? In the end, we agreed that our audience of patients is a vulnerable population, and keeping their anonymity and comfort was our priority. On a global scale, anyone who isn't a verified patient would easily be able to target, harass, or scam patients, which isn't the vision our team had. We wish to provide a safe space, and on a hospital-limited scope, this is possible.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

That were able to apply classroom ideas to the real world
That we could cohesively develop, filter, and mature shared ideas into a single application
3AM submission
That we could have a working prototype with no back-end involved

What we learned

Prototyping and complex wire-framing
How to effectively discuss and filter ideas
Time management and accountability
Power naps increase productivity

What's next for Hospital Buddiez

As mentioned above, expanding the scope of our project from hospital-wide to global would raise several new concerns that cannot be addressed at this time; however this is a potential direction our project may take in the future, as beyond creating more functionality to our application, finding ways to include more patients outside of a hospital setting would be a goal, as physical therapy, mental health, and senior center patients are just some of the population that may find use and companionship through this app.