The Prometheus Network

Inspiration

Electronic health records are an integral part of a proper healthcare delivery model. In order to properly treat patients, doctors need to know patient's drug history, family medical history, allergies, diseases, symptoms, complication, and etc. These are just some of the many things you would find in a EHR that could potentially save your life. Contemporary EHR solutions rely on a internet connection, which is easy enough in areas with access to the internet. As of 2012 (most recent statistic we found), only one third of people have internet access, while nearly two thirds have SMS coverage. Cellular coverage is much more ubiquitous than internet coverage, so we created a way to transmit medical data in a compressed and heavily encrypted way, over SMS. This way, EHR can be available to significantly more people world wide.

What it does

Doctors (without any internet connection, only using SMS) can send a text to our number with a patient name. Their message gets redirected to Prometheus servers where the request is logged. Then the patient they are requesting data on will get a message asking them for permission for that doctor to get data about them. If they approve it, the doctor will get an encrypted text back with all of the relevant data. The doctor can then copy and paste that into a downloadable offline web app which will decrypt and uncompress the data in a more easily viewable format.

The Prometheus network essentially allows advanced countries to leverage their technology to help other lesser developed countries, without having to add any hardware or any new infrastructure to those other areas.

The doctor also has the capability to override the authentication process using a special code. This is only meant for absolute emergencies, and doing so automatically notifies authorities so they can dispatch local medical attention to the area.

How we built it

We used an AWS EC2 instance to host all of our code. We created a CGI handler page using python that we connected as a webhook to twilio. Whenever someone texts our number, it goes to the CGI page. That python script connects to multiple databases for translations between names and phone numbers, getting patient information, and getting approval for doctors to get information.

Challenges we ran into

None of us had ever used twilio before, so that was a learning process. It was also challenging designing the way that it asks patients for information, because the way twilio is set up is less of a chat bot and more of a message sending service. So, any information the user typed in previously has to be stored and managed ourselves.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

It can send and receive messages, ask for authentication, and allow the doctor to access to the patient data with proper permissions.

What we learned

We learned about how to send data through SMS messages and about different ways to compress medical data using special pre-defined medical codes. We also learned about encryption protocols across multiple different languages (Python and Javascript).

What's next for The Prometheus Network

A huge benefit the scalability of this solution. More information can be added onto the EHR and Blockchain integration will allow for an extra security measure to the server. Integration into current EHR programs would expand the functionality.

Literature and Sources

Makiani, Mahin Jamshidi, et al. "Drug-drug interactions: The importance of medication reconciliation." Journal of research in pharmacy practice 6.1 (2017): 61.
Menachemi, Nir, Adam Langley, and Robert G. Brooks. "The use of information technologies among rural and urban physicians in Florida." Journal of Medical Systems 31.6 (2007): 483-488.
Ray, Pradeep, and Jaminda Wimalasiri. "The need for technical solutions for maintaining the privacy of EHR." Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 2006. EMBS'06. 28th Annual International Conference of the IEEE. IEEE, 2006.
de Mul, Marleen, and Marc Berg. "Completeness of medical records in emergency trauma care and an IT-based strategy for improvement." Medical informatics and the Internet in medicine 32.2 (2007): 157-167.
Bledsoe, Bryan E., Chad Wasden, and Larry Johnson. "Electronic prehospital records are often unavailable for emergency department medical decision making." Western Journal of Emergency Medicine 14.5 (2013): 482.
“Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 5 Feb. 2018, www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/internet-broadband/.