PulsePoint

Inspiration

I first saw just how serious the opioid crisis is during a week of community service with Howard University’s Alternative Spring Break. I was randomly placed in Charleston, West Virginia, where I spent the week handing out food and essentials to people in need, many of whom were dealing with opioid addiction.

That trip stuck with me. I realized addiction isn’t just a health issue; it affects every part of a person’s life. And once I got back to D.C., I started noticing the same struggles here too. It really got me thinking: what if we could use tech to catch the early signs of withdrawal and help people before things get worse?

What it does

PulsePoint is a web app that helps monitor heart rate over time and flags potential signs of opioid withdrawal.

Here’s what it can do:

Spot sudden spikes (like a jump of 20+ BPM in under 2 minutes).

Flag if heart rate stays high (over 120 BPM) for 6+ hours straight.

Tell the difference between gradual and sharp increases.

Time alerts around when meds are due.

Send check-in prompts, notify accountability buddies, and update clinicians.

The data is simulated for now, but it’s all set up to work with live, real-time inputs in the future.

How we built it

Tech Stack: React, Material UI, JavaScript, React Router

App Structure:

/ → Patient Dashboard

/clinician → Clinician Dashboard

/buddies → Accountability Buddy View

Shared NavBar across all views

Key Features:

Dashboards customized for each role

Time-simulated heart rate monitoring (1s = 6 minutes)

Randomized or CSV-driven heart rate values

BPM elevation tracking and alert logic

Medication check-in system that resets risk timers

Challenges we ran into

Figuring out how to simulate time and heart rate changes smoothly in the frontend

Balancing alert sensitivity — avoiding too many false positives while still being useful

Designing three different interfaces that all feel intuitive and connected

Staying grounded emotionally while working on a project tied to real suffering

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Creating a working prototype with real-time data simulation and alert escalation

Building three fully functional dashboards that talk to each other

Implementing alert thresholds based on real clinical patterns

Making something that could one day help someone feel seen, monitored, and supported

What we learned

Addiction affects people in ways that aren’t always visible — but tech can help surface the signals

Heart rate is a powerful but underutilized marker for withdrawal monitoring

It’s possible to build something meaningful, even with limited data, if the design is intentional

Empathy can guide technical decisions in surprisingly useful ways

What's next for PulsePoint

Integrating real biometric data from wearables (like smartwatches)

Adding AI-powered trend detection to predict withdrawal events earlier

Building out SMS or call-based alerts for accountability partners and clinicians

Partnering with local recovery programs to pilot the app in real communities

Publishing the alert logic as an open-source tool others can build on

Built With

• javascript
• papaparse
• react
• reactrouter