-
-
Post review comment to the selected health provider shown on fetchmsg.php page
-
From fetchdata.php, call postmsg.php to post a comment to database
-
Showing thanks you message after posting a comment on postmsg.php
-
Show selected healthcare provider's details
-
Reload the fetchmsg.php page to check comment has posted
-
fetch all reviewed comments for selected healthcare provider on popup window via fetchmsg.php
-
health.html, healthcare listing services
-
enter partial or full text for healthcare provider's name, city, or phone to search
-
top page, index.html
-
Show matched query healthcare provider(s) via fetchdata.php
About the Project and ##Inspiration
Both of us are active volunteers in Santa Clara County focusing on racial injustices that people in low-income communities and minorities face when it comes to healthcare and mental health support. We thought we’d do something about it. The overarching problem that we decided to address in the HopperHacks IV, equity division is the noticeable lack of equity that low-income communities face in the healthcare system in the United States. Healthcare is confusing to navigate, pricy, and as a whole pretty inaccessible unless you have the means to afford it. Our website aims to provide an accessible, convenient, and easy way for Santa Clara residents to access healthcare information. It's a place where resources are gathered and can be used.
The website design is aimed to be mobile device friendly since many low-income residents rely heavily on their mobile devices for daily communications rather than bulkier ones like laptop computers that are more of a hassle to carry around. It will filter our users' options by service types and what they're looking for (medical services, mental health screening, etc).
Our project is equity focused. We aim to help low-income residents be able to find these resources more easily. Most of the existing search sites use a “hands-down” or “information-dump” approach where they list the services but do not have feedback from the users. Our website is different. It is a platform for resource sharing, and a platform for the users to share their user experiences of services they’ve selected and experienced. We understand that lower-income residents usually do not have a way to voice and share their needs for service improvement. Our distinct service review feature will help amplify their needs and voice which traditionally don’t exist, which is a foundation for equity: Working to promote equal rights, particularly in regards to unequal distribution(s) of resources, wealth, and opportunities.
By allowing users to provide their user experiences of the selected services via the use of the review feature, the users will be empowered and hold service vendors more accountable to make the services meet their needs. For example, if a user went to see a doctor but the provider didn’t speak their language on-site, the user can provide feedback in the review box for other users and the vendor to notice. Hopefully, it will help improve the vendor’s service by having staff that speaks the languages of their future clients. The potential users can also see the comments before reaching out to the service providers.
Challenges we ran into
We came up with the idea of having a database of resources and building the website to make the filtering process for our users to choose which place they want to go to easier, though we ran into issues when we realized there were similar ideas already implemented. We wanted to make ours more distinct, given the equity focus to provide a platform for the low-income residents a place to voice their service feedback. Then we came up with the review function, where users could leave a review about how their experience was at certain places so future users can read them and know what to expect and better vendor accountability.
What we learned
We’ve learned from our volunteering work in the county that when the lower income residents who lack resources are valued and given ways for them to access resources and provide service feedback, they feel a higher sense of belonging and self worth in their communities. In our website, we are putting theory into practice by creating an actual website available and tailored for the community to give them a voice. We’ve also learned to have better time management this year on project development and code writing.
What's next for Team Rocket
We plan to add more resources, as of right now we have healthcare, specifically medical care and mental health support, we aim to add more and make it an even more comprehensive website that people can use.
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.