On average, health insurance is around $500 per individual in the United States. Although some companies offer to pay for health insurance on behalf of their employees, not many individuals are fortunate to afford health insurance. With the rise of unemployment and increase in worker layoffs, more and more people will not be able to afford annual check-ups or emergency trips to the hospital. So how can you make sure that you're ready for your own adventure? Here, is where Vaalve comes in.
What it does
Valve is a website that suggests a heart condition based off the outcomes of a quiz. Upon suggesting the possible heart condition, the user will have access to a "Resources" page, where they can research more about the condition. By having simple answer choices and an optional portion which takes in blood test results, Vaalve strives for efficiency and convenience for its users.
How we built it
Vaalve was built primarily using react. Although we wanted to make an html and css project because we had experience with those languages, we wanted to prioritize the learning experiences so we decided to go out of our comfort zones to learn React for the very first time. To begin, we set up all the packages for react, and added libraries like MUI and Chakra. Then, we started to implement the UI design that we sketched out on Figma. As we implemented different components like buttons, text, and cards, we also made sure to make it responsive to different screen sizes. Overall, vaalve is a project that has a heavy front end structure, but is projected to become an AI recommender system in the future.
Challenges we ran into
Originally, when ideating Vaalve we wanted to make it a classification model that took in the data that we ask users and using a pre-trained classification model and dataset classify what cardiac condition they are most likely to have. But to do this would require knowledge of AI and machine learning. While we loved the idea of being able to integrate healthcare and AI, with the time constraint and limited experience as freshman we decided to still share the impact Vaalve can have in a simpler manner: using frontend tools and market research to determine the same outcome.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
After hatching 19 ideas and being unsatisfied with them, we can say that we're happy to submit an idea that we all believe in. Vaalve's construction began slowly, so being able to present a clean, functional user interface is a huge accomplishment. Accuracy within this quiz was the most important aspect to us; however, we also wanted to prioritize user convenience, so creating a short, yet accurate quiz that took on average less than five minutes to complete was a goal we're happy to complete.
What we learned
As mentioned before, React was a new language for the majority of our members, and being the first hackathon for the majority of our members, we made incredible progress in understanding the packages the language has, the libraries it works well with, and the syntax of the language itself! We had an incredibly amazing time working in unknown territory and given that Vaalve has the potential to make so much impact, we wanted to use our skills to the best of our ability to showcase our idea. From learning how to translate a Figma design to actual code in React to making elements on a website functional, responsive, and work with other component libraries, we learned a lot and had an amazing time!
What's next for Vaalve
At Vaalve, we know how observant and curious kids can be. We also know how difficult it can be to explain why, exactly, Mommy or Daddy is constantly checking their blood pressure or clutching their chest with a grimace throughout the day. In Vaalve's future, we plan to produce an AI avatar to explain cardiovascular diseases, its risks, and its preventions in a child-friendly manner. Instead of having to plan a difficult conversation or let the little one research themselves, your child can have an interactive conversation with the avatar.
Additionally, Vaalve is planning to add a "Healthcare Hotline," which will take your location and project a map with the nearest healthcare professionals specializing in your particular cardiovascular condition. Here, let Vaalve save your time, so that you can look onto your future.
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