Highschool scholar Archishma Marrapu has made vital strides within the discipline of biomedical engineering. Her want to make use of her technical abilities to assist others led her to develop low-cost improvements together with an automatic pill-tracking system that reminds sufferers to take their drugs. Her Challenge Capsule Tracker has caught the eye of main pharmaceutical corporations together with CVS, a big U.S. pharmacy chain.
Marrapu, a scholar on the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Va., got here up with the thought final summer season after seeing her grandfather battle to recollect to take life-saving drugs at particular instances every day. She got down to create a tool that might assist him and thousands and thousands of different folks handle their drugs successfully. Her 3D-printed prescription bottles are outfitted with ultrasonic sensors, which hold observe of the capsules distributed. The accompanying cellular app is programmed with a number of options together with AI sample evaluation to detect skipped doses and misuse, in addition to ChatGPT to supply data to customers, reminiscent of methods to mitigate unwanted effects.
By switching to Marrapu’s tracker from conventional prescription bottles, pharmacies might enhance treatment adherence, stopping intensified medical circumstances and lowering the variety of deaths—at the moment about 125,000 yearly—as a result of forgetting to take a prescribed drug or misusing it, in line with the World Health Organization.
Marrapu offered a poster on her invention at this yr’s IEEE Integrated STEM Education Conference at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory, in Laurel, Md. She acquired the IEEE Technical Excellence Award.
“I need to be a changemaker in society and make a significant distinction in folks’s lives,” she says. “I firmly imagine that by combining the ability of well being care and know-how, we will deal with a few of the most urgent challenges confronted by people and communities worldwide.”
Disrupting the high-priced biomedical system market
Earlier than creating her automated pill-tracking software, Marrapu performed market analysis. She discovered that comparable units had been costly, some charging a excessive month-to-month subscription plan of just about US $100—which places them out of attain for many individuals.
“I got down to create one thing everybody might use no matter socioeconomic background,” she says. “Well being care has so many challenges that may be solved utilizing easy, cheap know-how. Why can’t we make biomedical units which are each reasonably priced and useful?”
Comparable instruments additionally don’t account for human errors reminiscent of forgetting to take a capsule on time or ingesting too many.
After a number of iterations, Marrapu landed on a design much like the prescription bottle pharmacies use at the moment, solely built-in with AI and different parts that she constructed and programmed herself.
That features LEDs that gentle up when it’s time to take a capsule, as nicely a buzzer.
Her prescription bottles can be bought on to pharmacies, she determined.
Marrapu developed an app to accompany the system. It permits the person to scan the bar code on the prescription bottle, which then autofills utilization details about the prescription, together with what number of capsules are to be taken and the way usually. When it’s time to take the treatment, not solely will the bottle gentle up and buzz; customers are also notified on their cellphone.
“Everybody has a spot in STEM, and one of the simplest ways to steer is by instance.”
By incorporating these 3 ways for the affected person to be reminded, the system can alert those that are hearing-impaired or visually impaired as nicely.
To take the treatment, the person pushes a button on the bottle lid; the prescribed capsules are distributed from a gap on the backside. The lid is for design functions solely, to copy the feel and appear of odd prescription bottles.
The variety of capsules taken and the time of dosage is then recorded on the app. If the treatment is just not distributed on the scheduled time after repeat reminders, the app mechanically notifies the designated medical skilled or caretaker.
The app additionally lists sure meals the affected person ought to keep away from, relying on the treatment. Grapefruit, kale, cured meats, and different meals can have an effect on the best way some medicines work within the physique.
One other app characteristic lets customers give the explanation why they’ve stopped taking a specific treatment, reminiscent of unwanted effects or monetary points. The app can present suggestions reminiscent of methods to treatment the unwanted effects, or it might counsel a generic various. It additionally notifies the medical skilled or caretaker.
The pill-tracking system has a pattern-analysis algorithm that goals to assist stop prescription drug misuse. The algorithm tracks what number of capsules had been distributed “on demand” by the person. It may be accomplished when, for instance, the affected person drops a capsule on the ground and must dispense one other to switch it. The sample evaluation identifies when somebody is taking extra treatment than the physician prescribed and notifies the physician or a caretaker.
Getting in Entrance of the Buyer
Marrapu first pitched her system to CVS executives in February. She additionally visited pharmacies in her space to interview pharmacists and prospects.
“This helped the evolution of my product,” Marrapu says. “There was suggestions, for instance, from these with arthritis, or aged individuals who had a tough time urgent the button. Assembly with pharmacists, I acquired the thought to include contact ID and voice recognition within the subsequent iteration to make it less complicated to dispense treatment.”
Executives at CVS’ Digital Innovation Lab mentioned they had been impressed by Marrapu’s system. Collectively they’re partnering on subsequent steps to make sure the following model is extra handy and inclusive.
A few of Marrapu’s longer-term plans are to launch a startup to deliver the product to market and to develop extra reasonably priced biomedical units.
It’s by no means too early to start out a STEM profession
Marrapu grew up in a household and group the place most of the adults labored in technical fields. Her mother and father each have jobs in data know-how.
She started competing in science, know-how, engineering, and math competitions at age 4. She participated within the First Lego League, a global robotics competitors for youngsters in grades 1 by way of 8. She went on to enter American Computer Science League competitions for college students in grades 1 by way of 12.
Marrapu participated in ACSL nationwide competitions, profitable a lot of them. She realized to code within the fourth and fifth grades, she says, turning into Java– and Python-certified.
It was throughout a visit to India visiting household whereas within the seventh grade that she discovered her ardour for biomedical engineering. At a charitable belief run by a household buddy, Marrapu witnessed sufferers who had been receiving prosthetic limbs without charge. The buddy confirmed her the substitute limbs, and Marrapu seen they didn’t have performance.
When Marrapu returned to highschool that yr, she constructed her first biomedical system: an AI-powered prosthetic hand. Made out of cheap electronics and 3D-printed components, it provided the person a variety of movement and gripping capabilities. She then donated some to the belief.
She launched a nonprofit, STEMifyGirls, that very same yr to empower younger ladies to enter STEM fields. The group provides hands-on actions, competitions, and sources to assist college students develop into fascinated by STEM fields and purchase new abilities.
“I’ve at all times had numerous assist from my household and group to pursue no matter pursuits me, however I do know that not everybody has the identical sources that I had,” she says. “I wished to supply younger ladies with the identical alternatives.”
By way of partnerships with organizations together with the Maryland STEM Festival, the Washington Academy of Sciences, and the Cyber & Steam Global Innovation Alliance, STEMify has reached some 4 million college students, she says.
Palms-on studying prepares college students for the true world extra successfully than textbooks or classroom studying, Marrapu says, and she or he desires to supply that have to as many ladies and younger ladies as she will.
“Everybody has a spot in STEM,” Marrapu says. “And one of the simplest ways to steer is by instance.”
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