Inspiration The inspiration for this project stems from the disappearing knowledge of traditional botanical remedies. In a world of synthetic solutions, many people have lost touch with the medicinal potential of the plants in their own backyards. We wanted to create a bridge between ancient herbal wisdom and modern digital accessibility, ensuring that natural health knowledge is preserved and easily accessible to everyone.
What it does Human Medicine (formerly Old Medicine) acts as a digital botanical health assistant. Users can explore a curated database of medicinal plants to understand their healing properties and traditional uses. The app provides "botanical prescriptions," guiding users on how specific plants can be utilized for various health needs, effectively turning a smartphone into a pocket-sized herbalist.
How we built it The application is built with a focus on scalability and modern cloud architecture:
Backend & Frontend: Developed using web technologies designed for quick response times and a clean user interface.
Containerization: We used Docker to package the application, ensuring consistency across different environments.
Cloud Infrastructure: The app is deployed on Google Cloud Run in the us-west1 region, allowing for serverless execution that scales automatically based on traffic.
Version Control: Managed through a structured CI/CD pipeline to ensure smooth updates and deployments.
Challenges we ran into One of the primary hurdles was structuring the botanical data in a way that was both scientifically accurate and easy for a layperson to understand. We also faced technical challenges during the initial deployment phase, specifically regarding container orchestration and ensuring the Cloud Run service communicated efficiently with our data sources.
Accomplishments that we're proud of Successful Cloud Deployment: Getting the app live on a global scale using Google Cloud's serverless infrastructure.
Database Integrity: Curating a reliable set of botanical information that provides genuine value to users.
Functional Prototype: Moving from a conceptual "Old Medicine" idea to a fully functional "Human Medicine" web application that is accessible via a live URL.
What we learned This project was a deep dive into the intersection of healthcare and cloud computing. We learned the intricacies of containerizing web apps for Cloud Run and the importance of data modeling when dealing with complex, non-linear information like medicinal plant properties. We also gained a better understanding of user experience design for educational health tools.
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