Six young school girls in the US are currently developing an app to help patients suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia, remember to take their medications.
The seventh graders from the Meyzeek Middle School are one of eight teams to win the Verizon Innovative App Challenge, and earned $20,000 for their school's STEM learning, as well as gaining the help of Massachusetts Institute of Technology coding experts to make their app a reality.
The students' app called, Pharm Alarm, sends reminder messages to patients when it's time to take their meds. Incase they forget, their family members and doctors are immediately notified.
The app also features a pill log, allowing caretaker to "scan in medicinal information through a pill container's labeled barcode, and a compliance graph for doctors to measure what percentage patients are taking their pills and attending doctor appointments". The main goal of Pharm Alarm is to keep families safe and informed.
13-year-old Ellie Tilford, who lead the project, said she watched her mother struggle to her grandfather, who suffered from dementia to help him remember to take his pills. "My grandfather has since passed away, but I'm certain this would have helped him. My mom worried about him taking his medications because we lived in a different state," Ellie told People magazine. "I did this in his honour. He didn't realise how much help he needed in the long run. I think he would have been thankful and proud."
Justina Nixon-Saintil, Verizon's director of education Justina Nixon-Saintil said they received 1,200 applicants this year. "[Pharm Alarm] is innovative, I'm not aware of any ideas that provide this service in the app store right now," Nixon-Saintil told people. "We thought it was unique and loved that there was a familial connection. These girls are solving a challenge that many people have."
The girls will soon work with experts from the Centre for Mobile Learning at the MIT Media Lab to code their app, which will be made available in June on Google Play.
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