TakeMeds

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  Our initial idea

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  Our initial database tables

Inspiration

In the whirlwind of Sarah's busy professional life, juggling medications alongside a demanding schedule is a constant challenge. Remembering dosages, tracking expiration dates, and managing refills can easily slip through the cracks, causing unnecessary stress and potential health risks. TakeMeds was born from the desire to alleviate this burden, providing a lifeline for individuals like Sarah who strive to maintain their health amidst their hectic lives. We envisioned TakeMeds not just as an app, but as a supportive companion that empowers users to take control of their medication management, ensuring their well-being remains a priority, no matter how busy life gets.

What it does

Forgetting medication expiration dates leads to waste, health risks, and unnecessary stress. TakeMeds is a gamified app that makes medication management easy. Snap a photo of the expiration date, receive timely reminders, and even get directions to the nearest pharmacy for refills. Unlike cluttered and complex existing apps, we prioritize user-friendliness and your well-being.

How we built it

We built TakeMeds with three core goals: a user-friendly interface, reliable reminder notifications, and seamless image processing. We chose Flutter for its cross-platform capabilities, allowing us to reach users on both iOS and Android. Flask was our backend choice for its rapid development and efficiency.

Challenges we ran into

Parsing medication dates from images proved to be a significant hurdle. We initially assumed the pytesseract library would work seamlessly, but we quickly discovered the need for extensive configuration and debugging. The library struggled to accurately identify and extract date information from the variety of medication label formats we encountered. We spent countless hours experimenting with different image pre-processing techniques, adjusting OCR settings, and fine-tuning the parsing logic. The 'date filled' and 'discard by' labels often confused the system, requiring us to implement additional logic to differentiate between them. Overcoming these challenges was crucial, as it enabled the core functionality of our app - accurately capturing expiration dates and providing timely reminders to our users.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud to have developed a robust image parsing server, created comprehensive documentation for future development, and gained valuable insights into the competitive landscape of medication management apps.

What we learned

Building TakeMeds expanded our skillset significantly. We learned cross-platform development with Flutter, tackled the complexities of image processing, and honed our collaboration skills using Git. We also gained a deeper understanding of the healthcare app market.

What's next for TakeMeds

We're actively seeking funding and resources to launch TakeMeds on the App Store and Play Store. Our roadmap includes building a dedicated customer support team, refining the app based on user feedback, enhancing our image processing capabilities with machine learning, and additional new features. We envision TakeMeds becoming an essential tool for individuals and caregivers, promoting medication adherence and improving health.

Built With

• android
• digitalocean
• flask
• flutter
• ios
• postgresql