Remote Access to Medical Professionals (RAMP)

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  Remote Access to Medical Professionals

Inspiration

More frequently than their urban counterparts, patients living in rural areas are often deterred from seeking medical care due to long travel distances and times.

What it does

RAMP is a system of strategically-placed kiosks in rural areas that are far from healthcare facilities. Patients can schedule virtual RAMP appointments (check up, post-surgery follow up, etc.) with their physicians in advance. They travel to their closest RAMP kiosk for the appointment. Patients enter a small, private area and sit at the kiosk. The kiosk collects vital signs (heart rate, blood pressure, temperature) without the aid of a technician or nurse, and the patient enters their recent symptoms and conditions. All information is sent to the physician for review. The appointment continues with a video conference during which the physician and patient interact. The appointment concludes with follow up intructions.

RAMP kiosks are conveniently placed in locations that rural patients will routinely frequent, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores. This network reduces the necessity of travelling to doctor's offices that are few and far between.

How we built it

We used Simbla to build our website. For background research, we used Maryland government data about telemedicine, population density, and community health in order to frame our solution.

Challenges we ran into

We had to narrow our scope and keep reminding ourselves that we could not address every aspect of the project. Without a strong coding background, we could not flesh out each detail of our idea.

Accomplishments that we are proud of

We began with a strong base of research and statistics in order to define our problem. This work led to a clearer development of our solution, especially as we created a strategy for placing our kiosks in target rural areas.

What We learned

Projects should not be too broad in scope. The problem must be clearly defined before delving too deeply into the solution.

What's next for Remote Access to Medical Professionals (RAMP)

RAMP will gain physician insight to improve the idea and UX for providers.