TelePill

Inspiration

According to DocResponse, the healthcare industry is facing a growing demand for personalized care, primarily driven by the rise of consumerism within healthcare. This calls for strategies that tailor healthcare delivery to each patient’s unique profile and preferences, whilst ensuring affordability and access for all patients.

Furthermore, technological advancements have expedited the misinformation epidemic, spotlighting concerns over how information and communication can impact health outcomes. It is known that education through effective communication is at the heart of improving the health of individuals. We need to understand and leverage on “where and how people access information about their health, the quality of that health information, how easy it is to understand and how it helps people to take action” (The Global Governance Project, 2022). We believe that reliable health information shouldn’t be a privilege but a right; it should be accessible to everyone, in every moment that matters. Quality education can improve health literacy, empowering individuals to make well-informed decisions about their well-being.

Building on this is the global concern over preventable morbidity and mortality in recent years. Notably, based on Cuffari (2024), current estimates indicate that nearly 80% of chronic medical conditions could be prevented by healthy lifestyle behaviors, with roughly 63% of deaths likely caused by chronic diseases attributed to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. This highlights the importance of advocating for healthier living, so as to reduce risk factors, diagnose illnesses early, and prevent future complications.

Apart from preventative healthcare, we understand the importance of quick access to essential medical information for first responders so as to deliver timely, accurate and effective care during emergencies. This is especially pertinent in rural or remote areas where emergency response is slow or under-resourced and delays could mean the difference between life and death.

With these considerations in mind, we would like to bring healthcare closer to people, regardless of economic status or geographical location, with a simple and user-friendly app and scalable platform.

What it does

• Home page -> Real-time health news and alerts + preventive health tips
  
• Symptom checker -> Fill in a short questionnaire and click submit to get medical advice from the AI
  
• Emergency information card page -> Fill in emergency health details that will be stored locally
  

How we built it

• React Native with Expo to speed up development and to ensure cross-platform support
• Express.js for backend
• Gemini API for symptom checker
• News API and MyHealthfinder API for displaying health-related recommendations and articles

Challenges we ran into

• Debugging errors related to API connection

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Our first hackathon submission
• First attempt integrating APIs

What we learned

• Importance of user interface design
• Neat project structure to keep things organized

What's next for TelePill

• Expansion of features
• Further improvement on UI/UX

Built With

• expo.io
• geminiapi
• react-native