MedRelay

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Inspiration

Our team was struggling to nail down an idea before we attended the Patient Safety 101 Workshop. We were deeply moved by Yanling and Rex's personal story, as well as their heartfelt advocacy for patient safety, especially as one of our team members was affected by shortcomings in patient safety in the past. Upon further research, we found that a major area of need is in patient information sharing. According to a 2021 report by the American Medical Association's Council on Medical Service, our healthcare system faces significant issues with sharing of patient information, especially with regards to patient transfers, due to inadequate systems. Without accurate medical histories, healthcare professionals are forced to make uninformed decisions about patients' care, leading to preventable negative health outcomes. This effect is amplified in rural areas, where access to specialists and critical care are more limited, and patient transfers are therefore necessarily more common, according to a 2024 review. The authors of this study specifically conclude that the "development and implementation of an integrated standardized interfacility transfer communication tool are warranted to decrease miscommunication and improve patient outcomes" (Galatzan et al 1). We decided this challenge was too critical not to address, leading us to build MedRelay.

What it does

MedRelay is a secure platform that enables seamless sharing of patient information between healthcare providers during medical referrals and handoffs. It helps ensure that patient data, such as electronic health records (EHR), lab reports, and diagnostic results, is transferred accurately and securely, reducing the risk of miscommunication and improving patient outcomes. In addition, we parse the file for key information that must be known about a patient during the transfer to avoid mistreatment or any patient safety concerns.

How we built it

MedRelay is a full-stack application built with React and Express which mainly use JavaScript, HTML and CSS. The core functionality of processing patient information after intake is written in Python and hosted in AWS, where we use S3 buckets to store and transfer data to where it's needed.

Challenges we ran into

As none of us have a background in medical technology, one key challenge was understanding the existing standards for patient information storage and sharing, as well as their shortcomings. Also, we faced difficulties integrating a specific technology we originally we wanted to use, forcing us to restructure our project to use an alternative option. Finally, integrating data transfers in both directions between our client interface and AWS presented a unique challenge.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're most proud of overcoming our hurdles with AWS as it was our first time using a cloud computing platform for scalable data processing. We're also proud of our efforts to integrate each of the many parts of our application, including multidirectional data transfer between frontend, backend, and cloud.

What we learned

We learned about the issues with patient safety in our medical system, and how it especially fails rural areas. We gained a deeper understanding of the complexities of the healthcare system, and how shortcomings in technology can have outsized effects in this field. We also learned a how to implement scalable cloud-based solutions with AWS and how to handle sensitive data securely. This project gave us valuable insights into data privacy, security standards like HIPAA, and practical challenges involved in working with Electronic Health Records (EHRs).

What's next for MedRelay

MedRelay can be improved with a more comprehensive suite of EHRs, including uncommon file types and document standards that may still be in use at some small medical institutions. This will fulfill the project's purpose of creating a truly universal platform for patient information sharing. Additionally, we aim to build mobile support so that healthcare professionals can access and update patient data on the go, making the platform more flexible. This opens up the door to creating a service for hospitals around the world to standardize patient information sharing, and potentially make MedRely profitable.