Inspiration
According to a study from the National Library of Medicine (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3068890/), 50% of patients do not take their medications as prescribed. In addition, many patients take multiple medications for a wide range of conditions (diseases, allergies, etc.) and need a way to effectively keep track of drug expiration dates, dosages, and when to take each specific medication. Not taking a medication can prevent a patient from properly recovering and lead to drastic consequences.
Many members on our team have experience taking a wide range of medications, and we would like to extend our experiences to build MedTracker so other patients no longer need to worry about missing a dose of a prescribed medicine.
What it does
MedTracker takes the different medications a patient is taking as inputs. The user can create a prescription or task which takes a name (ex. "Amoxicillin"), the dosage (ex. "1 tablet"), the frequency of doses (ex. "once per day"), the stock of the medication (ex. "30 tablets total"), and the start and stop date of the prescription. Then, it allows the user to keep track of their doses.
How we built it
We used Python, JavaScript, CSS, HTML and web-app hosting platforms to create MedTracker. We also receive input from hackathon mentors and the aid of generative AI.
Challenges we ran into
We had challenges working through the framework as we couldn't understand the template code we were provided: it was confusing for us beginners and wasn't well suited towards our needs. After meeting with mentors to go over our project framework, and seeking aid from generative AI, we successfully built the backend and frontend of our project and hosted it on a web-app hosting platform.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
This is our first hackathon as freshman students at Rice University. We're so proud of what we accomplished during these 36 hours!
What we learned
Through this hackathon, we learned how to work through the framework before coding. We wasted a lot of time trying to decipher the template code and make changes directly without understanding what we needed. Afterwards, we realized we had to scrap the template code completely and develop our own code database with the aid of generative AI.
What's next for MedTracker
In the future, we will continue building functionalities such as desktop, email, text, and browser notifications, a sign-up and log-in system, and more. As we continue to improve our technical skills as a team, we will be able to grow MedTracker further.
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