MedHerence

Inspiration

Whether it is from complex illnesses that require many medications, overprescription, or dementia, elderly patients struggle to take their medicines properly. It is equally difficult for doctors to know whether their patients are adherent. These concerns led us to create MedHerence.

What it does

MedHerence enables caregivers for patients with complex medication regimens to organize medical prescriptions, track medication adherence, and find community resources.

How I built it

We used Google Maps API, Google App Engine, Google Firebase. The website itself was created and designed using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. We harnessed the capabilities of the Google Cloud Platform by using Google App Engine to host the application, while storing all database items on Firestore. We choose to use Firestore because of how simple (yet powerful) it is. By using Firestore we can easily export the patient information to CSV files which can be imported into already existing EMRs easily. The Google Maps API allowed us to build an interactive map which shows care providers closest to the patient.

Challenges I ran into

1) For three of the members of our team, this was our first hackathon. Additionally, two of us had zero coding experience and two other members had limited experience. 2) Cors Headers not being set properly 3) App engine returning an Internal Server error because the app was not starting properly 4) Ability to update database records for drugs

And of course, learning how to communicate and work together as strangers remotely while keeping our sanity!

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

We designed a project from scratch, and developed an aesthetic to match it.

We got the app to work properly on Google Cloud, and figured out how to integrate data from various sources including a drug interaction API, and had a lot of fun.

What I learned

We learned how to integrate multiple APIs into a web application and website hosting!

What's next for MedHerence

We believe that our idea and prototype can genuinely help the aging population, especially in a time when there is so much uncertainty surrounding the elderly. Covid-19 is taking a huge toll on our grandparents and this is our way of showing that we care. We want to make a difference in the world. We believe medicine adherence is a tractable problem that will help save lives.