Aapka Acharya

A Doctor Bot that cures health problems with natural remedies(Ayurveda), powered by ML and AI.

For a healthier life, we have come up with an Artificial intelligence-enabled ChatBot. This is your pocket doctor which is trained with numerous datasets of Vedas(book of knowledge) of Indian traditional medicine, which involves the use of herbs for medication, yogic breathing, and recommending people proper diets.

One can easily chat or talk with it on a mobile app or website. With help of deep learning and machine learning, the bot will work on datasets of  Ayurveda medication and respond to people with cures for their diseases. As physical examination plays a crucial role in ayurvedic medication, annotations and labeling techniques will be used to examine the user. With help of the user’s phone camera, it will analyze some specific body parts required for the diagnosis. After diagnosis, it will provide the person with a set of steps required to cure the health issue.

Furthermore, taking location, availability of different herbs, and psychosomatic constitution of the user into consideration, the bot will create a diet plan for him/her. 

An E-mart will also be made available to the user in the same app for buying the medicinal herbs prescribed and groceries procured from organic farms.

Urbanization and unhealthy lifestyles are leading to long-term health problems with a gradual decrease in life expectancy. The majority of the people in cities are affected by it. Major contributors are the change in lifestyle of people, including improper diets and excessive usage of chemical medications that cause severe side effects. Researchers have concluded that antibiotics and steroids have grave effects on organs such as the liver and kidney in a long run.

Nowadays, people are more concerned about wealth rather than their health. On top of that, after modernization, people have forgotten the practices followed by their grandparents and ancestors which helped them live healthy for hundreds of years. 

One can easily cure even chronic diseases like diabetes, arthritis with a few easy steps practiced regularly, however, the traditional method is lost. These methods are scientific too, but being less attractive, people prefer to ignore them. Not only medication but taking improper diets give birth to these diseases. For instance, eating vegetables made with chemical pesticides or drinking water just after eating any meal, which leads to indigestion. 

According to WHO, 60% of related factors to individual health and quality of life are correlated to lifestyle. Millions of people follow an unhealthy lifestyle. Hence, they encounter illness, disability, and even death. There are many things we do daily that are normal for us but directly or indirectly affect our health and some are even not mentioned in modern science.  

As people say “Modern Problems, require Modern Solution” this is what our idea serves, as it connects our Traditional medicinal methods with Artificial Intelligence to serve the modern public. It will help people get easy cures for medical conditions they are facing just with a click on their mobile device. Taking people back to the basics with a modern touch to make it suitable for today’s time and also appealable to people

Our target market is really vast and consists of almost everyone ranging from cities to countryside. 

In most cases, one will find a permanent cure for his/her disease from the herbs prescribed by our bot. This will not only cure them but will also strengthen the immune system of that person at the same time. Thus, they will be less likely to get ill in the future while following some regular yoga practices and diet plans.

That said, food also plays an equally important role in health. Currently, people are eating vegetables and fruits cultivated using pesticides and insecticides which leads to biomagnification and that is not in our case. As we practice organic farming which doesn’t use any type of chemicals and indirectly has a major positive impact on one’s health. 

The majority prefers to live a healthy life and eat chemical-free food but they lack proper guidance and resources which will be provided through us on our app.

I worked with my uncle in my summer holidays, who has been working on this problem for the last 4 years. While working with him I got to know about the benefits of Ayurvedic medication and saw the people who went to their homes happy after being cured completely of chronic diseases like diabetes, paralysis, or a day-to-day problem like a common cold. This intrigued me a lot and I took a survey of his customers, which showed that they not only recovered but also felt energetic and their blood reports started coming normal. 

However, this was lacking publicity and technology to make it appealable and also more accessible to everyone. Being a science student, I knew how to make it modern-day ready. I made a basic bot with python that could reply to some health issues and tested it in my school during the covid period. My school's principal appreciated me for the idea of automating this process. Also, one of my classmates who used to get frequently ill, after taking some medicinal herbs regularly prescribed by the bot, rarely catches any infection now and feels energetic.

This involved consuming some readily available herbs and a controlled breathing exercise called Anulom Vilom. For those who were not having the herbs, I got them from my uncle. 

This research work was satisfying enough for me to dig into it further and develop an app with a full-fledged bot for curing people.

We are currently at the ideation stage and collecting data from different Indian Traditional books of Ayurveda on which the bot will work. Moreover, we are also working on the accessibility of the app and brainstorming for different features to make it effective. In addition to finding ideas for new features, we are continuously working on improving the existing ones by accounting for their cons and finding solutions for them.

Even we have explored some of the features by programming a python prototype bot and testing it out in our local community to see what people react and suggest. At the moment we are mainly working on the theory and ideas parts of the project, along with estimating its costs. Furthermore, making business plans to make it more cost-effective and increase profits but not at the cost of quality.

Publicity and marketing are equally important and for that, we are testing by advertising related content on different social media platforms with organic marketing, paid promotions, different hashtags, etc, to compare the engagement and finalize which suits best for us. In conclusion, it can be inferred from the above that we are at the conceptual stage of preparing for go-to-market.

The bot is going to be integrated with a mobile application, which majorly relies on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It uses annotation and labeling for recognizing the physical characteristics of people to examine them, which helps the bot understand the disease they are suffering from. Labeled pictures of specific body parts of people suffering from specific diseases are added in bot's datasets, which enable it to compare to the current user.  Along with that with help of deep learning, it learns from large data sets of our ayurvedic medicinal information. In addition to that, it uses machine learning to keep learning from user interactions and also from the datasets given to it for increasing its knowledge. Also, it will be trained to understand medical and blood reports for further investigation

So, firstly the user chats with the bot and enters his symptoms and medical history, then according to the symptoms it takes a physical examination of a body part with help of the user's device's camera, then comes to conclusion after taking everything into consideration. 

Additionally, one can visit E-mart on the same app which works on machine learning and recommends herbs and groceries to the user according to their medical history(if available). However, one can normally shop just like an ordinary e-commerce website.

The app is currently in the ideation stage and has not served initially, but has a bright future ahead. Improving health is among the trending topics in this covid period. People are trying numerous ways to boost their immune systems ranging from vaccination to consuming different nutrients. Tackling with such types of viruses gets difficult for everyone and especially for people with health issues such as obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. 

Thus, an app that is providing people with cures for even chronic diseases and also protection against corona with help of natural products, can be really successful in the coming years. Also, as it is having a large target market, it will get a lot of engagement if marketed correctly, an average of 200K-300k customers can be served in a year.  At its initial stage, AI-BOT consultation can be kept at a cheap price like 1-2 USD to get more volume and make permanent customers. On top of that, E-mart can also have its own unique customers, who want to have organic groceries, in addition to those who are taking items prescribed by the bot.

One of the major goals is that people start treating themselves with herbal medications, make yoga their daily practice, and get to know that a healthy diet is not always eating less but eating with some specific rule of each food item. This can be achieved by advertising the usefulness of our BOT and ayurvedic medication. Additionally, providing people with a trial pack for consultation and diet plan to let them test and then believe.

Another goal is that our BOT becomes accessible to the poor as well so that they can also get treatment. By providing free consultation to them and giving installments for the medicines bought this can be achieved.

Last but not least goal is to start the trend of organic vegetables, this will make a positive health impact on people as they will eat chemical-free food and will be safe from many diseases. Also, it will prevent soil pollution, hence sustainable earth. This will be available on our E-mart. This can be achievable by asking farmers to start practicing this type of farming as it is more beneficial and along with that have our own farms at places where it is possible. 

The main measurable indicator which I am going to use will be clicks of people on the app, those who are using the bot, and then later returning for further help or getting some items from the E-mart. The number of people who have started trusting in us will be directly proportional to our progress, as they have started moving towards a healthy life and that is our aim. 

Additionally, an increase in the demand for organic items will indicate progress.

Moreover, we will keep doing challenges on our social media platform and app, from there will know how many people are actively participating in these. 

Although in the long run, the major measurable indicator will be the enriching health of people, fewer people getting diseases and most getting a permanent treatment, decrease in the use of chemical-based fertilizers and pesticides which will prevent soil and water pollution. 

Currently, the major barrier has been financial. as we are not having enough funds for the initial part of the project to kickstart it.

However, it will also be a team. Currently, we are having a data scientist in our team currently he would be helping us with managing and analyzing data for our BOT. However, we will require someone for other AI works and app development.  

Moreover, someone who is well versed in marketing. Although the marketing part is manageable, having a specialist in it would do better. Also, someone who is experienced in making professional budget plans will be a necessity.

To conclude, the barriers which will limit our impact will be a team and seed funds for initiating the project.

I am the team leader, also a National Science Exhibhisionist. Innovation and creativity are in my blood, from a birthday wish to a startup I never miss a chance to stand out from the crowd. Currently, I'm in the last year of high school with a major in science. Moreover, I have also led various clubs and teams in my school and online communities, with my leadership skills and team management. This project has been my aim to help people live a healthy life. Currently, I am the one-man army in the team. 

I have been through a phase where I was more focused on my work but not health, and the reason was that no one was there to guide me. Eating at irregular times made me more prone to illness, and then frequently taking chemical-based medication for it worsened it. Being a science student I rarely believed in any other medication than modern ones but this point of view of mine changed. 

I went to my uncle who is an ayurvedic doctor. He gave me a syrup of herbs and after some time I started feeling better. He has been in this field for the last 4 years and has cured more hundred patients with health issues from paralysis or diabetes to a common cold.

This made me realize how nature can cure us. To make it modern-day ready after brainstorming a lot I came to a conclusion to create an AI bot that treats people with natural remedies as not everyone will have an uncle like mine but they have their Aapka Acharya BOT to stay fit. Even my uncle showed interest in this idea and is eager to help me with all the health stuff.

Currently, we have not partnered with any organization.