KnowYourRisk

• 

  KnowYourRisk

Inspiration

After speaking with Dr. Nina Vincoff, the Radiology Vice Chair for Patient Experience and Breast Imaging Division Chief at Northwell Health, we learned of the large gap in diagnosing breast cancer for women. The recommendation for most people is to get your first mammogram at age 40, but patients who are at a heightened risk of developing breast cancer should ideally begin regular mammograms at age 25. This means that women who are at higher risk for developing breast cancer may not receive a diagnosis for decades, making the cancer much more aggressive and more difficult to fight. However, there are tools that can calculate a woman's risk for breast cancer, the most often used being Tyrer-Cuzik model (IBIS tool). IBIS is a comprehensive (and not user-friendly) tool only available to physicians which takes lots of information from women and calculates their risk of developing breast cancer. So we set out to create an accurate and accessible tool for young women to determine whether they are at high risk so they can take appropriate next steps.

What it does

KnowYourRisk allows women to easily and freely assess their risk of breast cancer by taking into account their age, height, weight, full family history, and many other factors. By using this app, women are quickly referred to proper resources based on their potential risk to breast cancer.

How we built it

We built the KnowYourRisk app by using XCode that helped us create a user interface with different areas of input based on user's answers, allowing us to create a user-friendly and efficient app. On the back-end, we used Python in order to convert the input answers from the app into code that can then be evaluated into an accurate assessment based on the weight of each factor that was input.

Challenges we ran into

The greatest challenge we ran into was the development of the XCode and iOS for the app. As beginners, none of us had previous experience with app development, and we quickly realized it would not be feasible to develop the app in its entirety during the hackathon. For this reason, we are submitting the skeleton of our code that we hope to implement into a legitimate XCode project after fully learning how to use it.

Another challenge we encountered was the automation process for exporting and importing data to and from IBIS. Although this process is clearly outlined by IBIS, we, unfortunately, had to submit a request to utilize it that has yet to be processed (we are hopeful it will be approved as it is for non-commercial use). For this reason, we were, unfortunately, unable to implement this into our code during the hackathon, but plan to as soon as we receive approval.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are very proud of our overall concept! We think that there is a huge demand for an app such as this and that physicians and hospitals would be inclined to encourage patients to utilize it independently. As breast cancer is a relatively common and relatively treatable cancer, we think this could be a legitimate public health intervention for high-risk women in the US.

What we learned

We learned that app development is not a skill that can be learned in a day, but this has not discouraged us from creating a concept that we are excited about and proud of. We also didn't let this stop us from creating code that we plan to integrate into our final app in the coming weeks as we better learn XCode and iOS.

What's next for KnowYourRisk

Our next steps are to fully develop and integrate our concept and code into XCode.

However, we also hope to incorporate new features from there. We plan to allow users to store their data by creating accounts through the app so that they can receive reminders for routine screening, update their information if there is a change (such as in family history or genetic testing), and receive alerts if there is an improvement in risk assessment technology.

Another feature we hope to implement is using the user's location to connect them with local genetic testing centers, physicians, or hospitals. This will make it as easy as possible for users to take action based on their risk assessment.

Built With

• python
• xcode