Bobby Cao Peanut Pal Project Pre-Proposal

Peanut Pal

Background

Oral Immunotherapy (OIT) is an emerging strategy for tackling severe food allergies, mostly for younger children. However, it takes a lot of patience and documentation. In order to tackle this issue there is a need for a voice application that tells the child/user to take the medication and not exercise over 2 hours after taking the medication. A system that could be created for this is a mobile application that notifies the patient to take the medicine, document the time the patient took the medicine, and then notify them when it is safe to exercise. The application can help the patient avoid constantly documenting the OIT and constantly timing themselves.

Executive Summary

Using a mobile device rather than a voice controlled speaker is preferred because both devices do have voice recognition and voice speaking capabilities. Of course a phone is not tethered to a power source constantly  so it would be better for on the go use, for example, if the patient is in school. There are multiple APIs that can be used for the mobile app. Also it needs to be very child friendly so instead of having a text notification there can be a voice notification and that can be utilized via APIs or pre-recorded notification voice used as like a ringtone. Then track when the patient taken the medication and automatically log that into the phone. Also the log could be shared between other devices so parents could see. After that have another notification to say that the patient can exercise. There should be a parental mode so a child cannot config any dosages or anything. This application can be done in either Android via Android SDKs and the use of Java, IOS via IOS SDKs and C/C#, or both.

Goals

• Voice Notifications
• Time tracking
• Dose Tracking
• Log time and dosage
• Sharing of logs
• Accelerometer tracking to see if the patient is exercising before the 2 hour period

Viability Analysis

Important difficulties include no way to actually validate if the child actually takes the dose or if the child takes the correct dosage. This is the most difficult part however, with creative ideas like maybe having a video recording from the phone during which the child can take the dose can definitely validate it.  Another possible difficulty is that the notifications will not be heard, so if there is a way to override that in some form.

Risks and Rewards

A risk is that a child can ignore or miss the dosage time. So in order to overcome that there might have to be a system of contacting the patient’s emergency contacts to warn them and in turn warn the patient. Also another risk is over-dosage but that can be solved possibly via using a video recording. The reward is that this app can be the forefront of OIT and can lead more people with peanut allergies to successfully go through OIT.

Closing

This is an app that can be used to improve and perhaps save many lives. If the application can be developed with children in mind then it can be childproof and be a great application for all people that undergo OIT to use.

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