Covidsourcing

Inspiration

Create a user-friendly app/database to crowdsource medical supplies. The main goal is to encourage collaboration between the general public, research, and the healthcare industry to better distribute supplies based on priority.

What is the issue

Medical Supplies are constantly in shortage

• Especially during COVID-19, being able to determine where demand is needed for supplies, where different parts are being made, and how to streamline the manufacturing process is extremely important Finding/distributing supplies efficiently is extremely difficult on a large scale

How can we efficiently provide supply/demand information so that supplies can be monitored and managed better?

What it does

People are buying supplies from untrusted sources We need one platform; peer-reviewed; publicly accessible

Create a user-friendly app to crowdsource medical supplies. The main goal is to encourage collaboration between the general public, research, and the healthcare industry to better distribute supplies based on priority.

Main Deliverables

1. Making this information publicly accessible
2. Effectively verifying this information with the medical community
3. Prioritize demand for supplies based on: a) The number of cases b) Do they have local suppliers? c) Do they have supplies?
4. Distribute supplies

Applications

• COVID-19
• Natural Disaster Relief, Relief Efforts
• General Crowdsourcing of medical supplies (e.g. Vaccine Chemicals) --> Reduces costs of development; instead of purchasing new chemicals for each trial, researchers can source unused supplies
• Crowdsourcing new designs (e.g. research at universities, new med supply start-ups, etc)

Especially for Relief Efforts, when having as many people contributing as possible to supplying effective and as many supplies as possible, there needs to be an efficient way to organize this. On a daily basis, this can be applied to helping third-world countries and strengthening our global health system.

What sets our app apart

1. Being able to keep track of global supplies and new innovative designs
2. Peer Review a) New designs for medical supplies can be posted with their location (e.g. new face shield design made by a researcher, new design for a ventilator valve, etc) b) Hospitals who are in dire need of new supplies and can’t find them elsewhere can test these new supplies and verify they work
3. Challenge: Where will all these new supplies go after COVID-19? a) Our program prioritizes demand for supplies and determines where these supplies can go later (e.g. communities with poorer health care infrastructure, etc)
4. Scale Up a) With enough users, this wealth of information will be extremely helpful in strengthening our local AND global health system

How we built it

Google Firebase - Once the application is in its development phase, we plan to incorporate Google Firebase to store data. The following is an example of how we plan to use Google Firebase to store supplier data.

Main Functions

1. Everyone can edit the map and add locations of (verified by us):

If you are a supplier, the following information is required: a) What they are making b) Capacity (how many are you able to create every day c) How they are making it (grade of facilities) d) What other supplies they need (are they just making the plastic covering of face shields? Do they need someone else to supply the headbands? ) e) Certifications (where can it be used, medical-grade?)

If you are an area of need: a) What supplies they need b) how many, standards of supplies (suitable for long term care homes? Hospitals? Just general wear?)

1. Prioritize Areas of Need a) Who is the closest supplier? b) How many are needed vs how many can effectively be transported

Next Steps

Currently focusing on just masks How do we determine who can edit the information?

• Can anyone add a location of need?
• Creating accounts may be the next step to this and would require a lot more security

In the future, we will also recognize formal, as well as informal organizations (e.g. families, unofficial not-for-profits) that distribute supplies, so that resources can go where they are needed the most.

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