EpiCare

EpiCare is a first of its kind, first-aid mobile application programmed to aid persons diagnosed with epilepsy and their caregivers. 

EpiCare is a mobile application with a simple and traversable user-interface, created to help users alert their surroundings and caregivers when they experience seizures. The alert system initiates either when the system automatically detects jerking movements or upon using the SOS button. An alert email containing the location of the user is sent instantaneously to the emergency contacts. After alerting the user’s surroundings, the application delivers aural instructions alongside visual graphics to guide bystanders in providing immediate first-aid. The application times the seizure and provides the facility of calling emergency services, in case seizure continues beyond 5 minutes. The user’s medical ID is also accessible during emergencies. Each seizure episode is recorded with details such as duration, location, trigger and intensity, which are further documented as a health log, directly shareable with a doctor. The health log also provides a graphical representation of the past seizures assisting in analyzing trends. EpiCare has a medication reminder system that issues a reminder at the user-defined time with information such as the medicine name and dosage. Lastly, as sleep is vital in determining the frequency of seizures, an in-app sleep tracker records the user’s sleep routine.

Epilepsy is the 4th most-common chronic neurological disorder, which is characterized by recurrent and unprovoked seizures. Nearly 65 million people across the globe suffer from this disorder that affects all genders, ages and ethnicities alike. About 1 in 10 people are susceptible to having a seizure at least once in their lifetime. 

source: EPI-HAB Phoenix, Inc.

An epileptic attack can range from mild to severe. However during the majority of seizures, the patients lose their consciousness, are unable to control their movements and sensations and are thus prone to hurt themselves. Moreover, without proper first aid, the seizures could cluster (become repetitive) and lead to blockage of airway. 

According to surveys, many people harbor misconceptions about or simply do not know how to respond to a seizure. Because of lack of knowledge, it is possible for parents, teachers, coworkers, and the general public at large to respond inappropriately or inadequately to repetitive or prolonged seizures, and the discomfort about how to provide first aid may contribute to the stigma surrounding epilepsy.

When we combine the commonality of this ailment with a lack of awareness amongst the general public, the results can deem catastrophic. Just knowing the basic first-aid steps can truly save lives. Moreover, keeping a track of seizures, taking medications on time and having adequate sleep can all reduce the threat of an epileptic attack.

Our target population, whose lives I am working to directly and meaningfully improve are the over 65 million people who suffer from epilepsy worldwide. Epilepsy, one of the oldest recognized conditions, yet without a cure, affects people of all genders, races, ages, geographic locations and ethnicities. Nearly three-fourths of this population lives in low-income countries, where they lack the basic awareness and facilities to combat this disorder. They are currently underserved as a very limited number of people across the world are educated about this ailment and are capable of providing the first aid these people desperately and urgently need in case of a seizure.

Hence, EpiCare provides a solution that can reach/help people on a global scale as it provides a step by step first-aid solution in case of an epileptic emergency, while simultaneously dissolving the stigma surrounding it, which prevents many from helping and several from being helped. As about 70% of epileptic patients can prevent seizures with appropriate precautions, EpiCare, in addition to the features which help address an emergency, has several features which aid in monitoring and preventing an attack from occurring. Features like the medication reminder system, the sleep tracking facility and the health log enable the patient to avoid and detect any variations/fluctuations that might lead to an attack. In case the location and its contents are what triggered the seizure, there is also location history the patient can access and potentially avoid in the future.

Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, I was unable to go out and meet potential users, in-person as India has implemented strict curfews and guidelines regarding public outings. 

However, to conduct research, I created a google form survey which entails questions regarding a person’s knowledge about epilepsy and what they would have done when faced with an emergency. The form recorded 73 responses from people of all ages and professions, both epileptic and non-epileptic. These responses were fundamental in the formulation of the application’s features and services.

Moreover, as my grandfather has suffered from epilepsy nearly all his life, I have witnessed his difficulties and needs first-hand.

EpiCare is currently in the stage of beta testing, collecting reviews from a group of 20 volunteers (both epileptic and non-epileptic), as we are focused on creating a user-centric application, based on user feedback. The user feedback is being taken in terms of usability of the user interface, the productivity of the features, bug reporting and general feedback. We are also collecting responses from epileptologists to review the utility of the health log in diagnosing and analyzing trends in seizures and triggers. As we are still awaiting more beta testers, whose responses would be fundamental in the further development of the mobile application, before piloting the project, EpiCare currently is classified as a prototype. 

My solution involves a new application of the existing technology of app development. While browsing apps that would aid my grandfather (an epileptic patient), who lives in a different state, in case of an emergency, I realized that there were no apps that could help him on the spot. Therefore, I used the coding platform, Thunkable to put my idea into effect. I used certain softwares such as Firebase and Zapier to enhance the working of my application. I utilized the mobile phone’s inbuilt accelerometer to detect any severe jerking movements to initiate the alert system, and the AI component of text to speech to provide aural first-aid instructions to the bystanders. I also used the Google Maps API to store the location of the epileptic attacks. Adobe Illustrator and Sketch were used for creating the graphics for the SOS first-aid steps. I also used platforms such as Google Sheets, Firebase Realtime DB, Cloudinary and Airtable to create the backend database for the application. Thus, EpiCare is a full-stack project in the form of a template ready to be run by a user in real-time. 

Since my application is completely new and is still in the beta testing phase, it has not yet been launched on any of the app store platforms, and hence, currently does not impact any number of people. But with proper advertising and promotion, the application has the potential to impact a large number of people by next year, a minimum of approximately 2-3 million people, which is about 3% of the population diagnosed with epilepsy, globally. 

The strategy to achieve the trajectory EpiCare needs to help millions of people worldwide, would be reaching out to health care organisations and NGOs, that work towards the welfare of epileptic patients and spreading awareness about how EpiCare can be the perfect companion for their audience; not only in times of emergencies but also in their daily routine. 

The primary goal of EpiCare is to make the battle against epilepsy simpler. The impact EpiCare would have on the lives of people can be categorized into three groups.

1. Help users and their caregivers in their everyday life

Epicare has features such as medication reminders, sleep tracker and health log, which are directed towards assisting users and their caregivers in analysing past seizures trends and preventing possible future attacks. 

2. Help users and  bystanders in case of an emergency 

Epicare has an SOS feature that on detecting a possible seizure, or upon user intimation, initiates the first-aid protocol. This can play an elementary role in saving the life of a user, if the attack occurs in an unsupervised environment, as a very large majority of the general population is unaware of how to respond to such an emergency. Bystanders in such a situation, due to the lack of knowledge may even act in catastrophic ways, such as trying to restrain the patient.

3. Help remove the connotation surrounding epilepsy

A seizure can be scary and disturbing for the general public to witness. This prevents people, especially in a public setting, from helping the patients. Moreover, the lack of knowledge and awareness regarding the cause, symptoms and effects of epilepsy (as the majority of the epileptic population resides in low-income countries), may hinder these patients from receiving the help and support they need. An accessible and simple mobile application, such as EpiCare, shows great promise in addressing this. 

EpiCare aims to facilitate accomplishing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3, good health and well-being, by promoting the wellness of epileptic patients and increasing general awareness about the disorder. Our solution’s impact would mainly be measured from the number of times seizure assistance was provided by laypersons using the application. The impact EpiCare would have on the lives of its users would also be calculated using quarterly user surveys. While abiding by the standard HIPPA privacy laws, we also plan to extract certain user habits, such as average time spent using the application and the number of alerts initiated, to analyze the influence of the application, while discovering scopes for further development. Also after deploying a differential privacy algorithm to make the user data anonymous, we hope to utilize it as a first-hand, primary database to conduct medical research on identifying trends in the influence of factors such as age, gender, sleep, location and heart rate on the frequency and intensity of seizures. The accuracy of the created database would also serve as an important measure of the application’s progress. 

The barriers which currently exist/ or may exist in the future that could prevent EpiCare from accomplishing its goals are:

1. Financial Barriers

EpiCare is currently a self-funded project. It has limited seed capital to finance external softwares such as cloud storage services and undertake future developments of the application. It also lacks resources to implement the marketing and promotional strategies necessary to achieve its desired trajectory.  

2. Market Barriers

Despite being a first-of-its-kind application, EpiCare might find it difficult to secure its market position, due to a lack of expertise, guidance and experience.

I, Spurti Nimbali, am a 15-year-old high school sophomore in New Delhi, India with an ardent interest in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence. Having studied Information Technology and Artificial Intelligence as a skill-based subject for the past two years, I have been exposed to the wide array of ways in which technology can be used to create something serviceable. As a national finalist in the Hindustan Times code-a-thon, I discovered the art of app development. Also as a member of Enship, my school's Entrepreneurship Club and one of the best-renowned student-run entrepreneurship clubs of India, I gained insights regarding the establishment of social enterprises and the formulation of business plans.  

With both my parents being doctors, I am interested in the field of MedTech. Their inputs have been crucial in the development of EpiCare. 

My grandfather has battled epilepsy for most of his life. It was the innate desire to help out my grandfather that sparked the idea of EpiCare. I have video called him extensively describing the functions of the application and taken into consideration what features he, as a patient, would like for the application to have. I had also consulted with him in the brainstorming stage of the design process, asking him to describe the various challenges he faced due to his ailment and to what extent they had impacted his lifestyle. It was his experience of being unable to take/refill medications from time to time which led me to implement the medication alert system to remind users to take the only certain care to aid with this disease.

Currently, EpiCare isn’t associated with any organisations but hopes to establish partnerships with epilepsy foundations and NGOs alongside hospitals and epileptologists, shortly.  We also hope to partner with fellow MedTech startups of India. 

EpiCare is designed and programmed to help epileptic patients and their caregivers. Its motives are directed towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development goal 3, good health and well-being, hence aligning with the HP Girls Save the World Solution's social commitments. The application's primary feature of assisting bystanders in providing immediate first-aid in case of an epileptic emergency has the potential to save innumerable lives. Also, the app helps remove the stigma surrounding epilepsy, and increase general awareness about an ailment that affects one in 10, and 65 million worldwide. 

If awarded, I would use the HP Girls Save the World Prize to equip my application with the most recent and accurate technical models, work with computer science professionals to incorporate smart technologies such as Deep Learning to analyze trends in triggers and advanced privacy algorithms to protect the users' vital medical information from security breaches. A part of the award would also be directed towards making the application available and accessible to the maximum number of people worldwide. If implemented properly, EpiCare could become the next big advancement in the field of epileptology. 

EpiCare is designed and programmed to help epileptic patients and their caregivers. As three-fourths of the epileptic population belongs to low-income countries, where people lack basic knowledge about the ailment and suitable care, a simple and accessible app like EpiCare can serve as a potential solution. The application's primary feature of assisting bystanders in providing immediate first-aid in case of an epileptic emergency has the potential to save innumerable lives. Also, the app helps remove the stigma surrounding epilepsy, and increase general awareness about a disorder that affects one in 10, and 65 million worldwide. 

If awarded, I would use the Pozen Innovation Prize to equip my application with the most recent and accurate technical models, work with computer science professionals to incorporate smart technologies such as Deep Learning to analyze trends in triggers and advanced privacy algorithms to protect the users' vital medical information from security breaches. A part of the award would also be directed towards making the application available and accessible to the maximum number of people worldwide. If implemented properly, EpiCare could become the next big advancement in the field of epileptology.