MIT Hacking Medicine Grand Hack 2020: Winning 3rd Place
Group Presentation video timestamp: 48:37
What happened during the event?
In my first-ever hackathon, I collaborated online, with an international team of 7, over a 2-day sprint, where we developed an evidence-based solution to improve birth outcomes, lower healthcare insurance provider costs, and improve patient outcomes.
What was our team’s problem to be solved?
Over fifty thousand Americans a year, experience severe pregnancy-related injury or death, how might we successfully improve national maternal outcomes?
The Digital Clinical measure of Activity Track Challenge description can be found here: https://grandhack.mit.edu/boston/
Who were the competitors?
With the help of two internal primary resources, our research analyst, and business strategist, we reviewed apps that were currently in the market with the same purpose of helping those going through pregnancy.
Our observations
We noticed that apps lacked evidence-based recommendations that would more conveniently and effectively inform a person going through pregnancy in how to improve their daily mental and physical health.
To remedy this, we thought to use of wearables to track and encourage recommended physical exercises.
Using this data, the user would be able to share their observations with their friends and family, who could be their support group if they felt unmotivated or alone on their pregnancy journey.
On a voluntary basis, the user would also be able to share this data and any notes of symptoms or general concerns with their caregivers.
Finally, through the use of original video, audio, or written content, the user would be able to access educational resources to help them through their pregnancy using tutorial-based meditation and physical exercise lessons. To encourage healthy practices throughout the day, notifications and wearable functions would be incorporated into the app.
My Role
Brand Development & UX/UI Design
The brand design conveyed motherhood, community, and movement. The colors were chosen to represent liveliness, warmth, and welcoming. Overall, the typography, photography, and user interface design had a soft roundness to support daily app engagement.
Feature Highlights
Community Chat
To alleviate the loneliness of those going through pregnancy, where they could lack the motivation to get off their feet, leading to decreased energy levels, depression, and a body that is not better equipped to have a healthy pregnancy, MyBirthPrep encouraged its users to continue to move around through community-based accountability.
Users would be able to create their own squads to include their close friends, family, and other users who are in similar phases of their own pregnancy.
Patient Log & Reminders
Combining the accessibility of wearable technology, health tracking data, and mobile technology, we wanted to be able to leverage existing technology to easily inform the user and their healthcare provider on the state of their health during their pregnancy. This would enable care providers to prescribe more accurate solutions.
When a user connected their wearable (Fitbit, Applewatch, etc.), users were able to see their physical, meditation, and sleep trends. They would then correlate this data with a personal pregnancy journal entry, and if necessary, log these correlations in their patient log for specific upcoming appointments.
Education & Exercise
Identified by the labor and delivery nurse on the team, we learned that there was an emphasis on the importance of mobility during pregnancy and its positive effect on better birth outcomes.
Meanwhile, our other public health professional on the team, educated us on the increased likelihood of difficult birth outcomes due to a person’s limited access to educational resources, especially evident in lower-income neighborhoods.
To encourage healthy pregnancies, MyBirthPrep would have been a free mobile app and wearable app, where they would be guided through evidence-based solutions to improve and maintain healthy practices, which would have positively impacted birthing outcomes.
As a side-effect of healthier pregnancies, insurance providers would be required to payout less in both amount and frequency to providers and patients.
Teamwork made the dream work
Working to our strengths, being empathetic towards each others different time zones and at home during the COVID pandemic; having the courage to participate in practice pitch sessions with the event moderator, and communicating deadlines per our respected projects, ensured that each aspect of our pitch was completed. This enabled our project’s presenter time to rehearse their script, and time for me to design cohesive high-fidelity mockups.