Organ Care

Organ Care is an app that allows for the fast and efficient tracking of bodily organs as they are transferred from one medical facility to another for transplant. 

Functioning organs are vital for every human.  They ensure proper body function and life itself.  As we have seen through the past years, our advancements in both travel and medical technologies have significantly improved the organ transplant process, but we still face challenges in this life altering process. The lungs and heart are two of the most important organs, and they also hold the shortest travel span after recovery, being only about 4-6 hours.  Through these short time periods, every second counts and hardly any room for mistake is permitted.  Lack of communication can lead to problems down the road for the patient, doctors, and the organ being transplanted.  Organ Care is an app that allows for medical professionals, both on the transferring and surgical teams to understand timing patterns in relation to traffic, location, and patient needs during this tedious process.  The app utilizes GPS to understand how far away the organ currently is, and offers time estimates and traffic updates.  It also offers information on the organ donor and the receiving patient to ensure all involved can collaborate to create a successful outcome.

Patients that are located at small scale hospitals in rural areas, specifically in developing countries are significantly less likely to receive transplants, especially if they cannot be transferred to a larger hospital.  Roughly 2,000 hearts are transplanted every year worldwide compared to the 659,000 people in the United States alone that die of heart failure.  The donation process can be tedious, and many very specific classifications need to be met, such as blood type, organ size, or tissue size. Additionally, the transplant list can be hard to climb, especially for those of older age or better condition.  Because some organs can be so hard to come by for ones specific needs, loosing an organ due to miscommunication or travel complications can be a devastating blow.  An investigation done by Kaiser Health News and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting proved that between 2014 and 2019 170 organs could not be transferred and 370 were considered "near misses". Although our techniques have improved for these processes, we cannot create a way for these organs to hold a longer travel time.  One of the main factors contributing to this problem is unexpected conditions such as weather, or traffic.  Even though an ambulance has the ability to pass cars, this process still can be slow and inconsistent.  The reality of the problem is that it can lead to death, and alterations of the transplant list.  

This app's target audience is surgical doctors and transfer teams that work to take organs by ambulance, plane, or helicopter. This service is intended to be used to aid the patient that will utilize the organ.  By giving a patient a higher likelihood of receiving a life altering surgery, this aids not only them, but the doctors and transfer teams as they face legal challenges or difficult complications that can arise on the operating table.  Every organ counts when it comes to the transplant process so by limiting the occasion of a failed transfer we save not only the direct patient, but also the ones to come later on through the list. Although the app does not directly help the patient, it ensures that no timing mistakes are made.  Specified time estimates help doctors work around patient and operating room preparation, ensuring that even down to the last minutes no complications arise. In conclusion patients are given a higher percentage chance of a successful transplant when timing needs are met consistently.  The app will help on a large scale with saving lives, but also on a smaller scale by limiting the patients levels of discomfort from physical pain or emotional struggles. 

Currently the app is considered to be a concept or an idea.  Through various trials and numbers taken from doctors and patients we can further understand the complicated process that occurs and how vital communication can be.  As of now the first step would be to collaborate with a nearby hospital or organ transfer team to run trials on the app, and understand hiccups in the system or areas of improvement. With recent wildfires occurring in the community, we understand the process of even transferring patients from one hospital to another can be taxing on patients and nurses, so by understanding the pressure and importance of these workers, we can also understand how a similar situation could look. Our first plan of attack when it comes to working with an active team would be to ensure that information about patients on both ends can be exchange quickly between sides.  Whether this is about basic information such as the organ size, blood type, or general time permitted for the organ to be out of the body, or the estimated time with traffic at the moment, and stop light patterns.

Organ Care is currently at the stage of concept, as it is a new idea being created and constantly changed.  The next big step would be to take the idea and begin construction of a model of the app, and eventually begin trials in staged environments or real ones. As of now the main portion of work is being targeted towards perfecting the idea for future construction to run smoothly with few problems occurring or complications causing timing delays.  This app will have the ability to hold information that is also very private, so ensuring HIPAA certification of a patient's privacy will be important to limit law suits medical professionals might face. 

This app will use GPS technology to further understand locations relating to the hospital housing the organ, the hospital with the patient receiving the organ and the transfer team as they are traveling.  The app will also use a software to house patient information that can be stored under an individuals file for future reference as well as in the moment.  Basic communication is what the app is centered around, and what will help us lead to our goal of decreased cases of lost organs in transit.  Utilizing the GPS, similar to ones we see used in everyday life for basic navigation, the app will offer timing estimates, and traffic patterns.  It is important for people on both sides to understand the state of the patient or organ, so similar to communication apps we use there will be an option to show the current state of the patient or organ.  This creates a simple way for all those involved to be in the know when it comes to a stressful and impactful situation.  

This concept is still in the idea making phase, so the app has not been constructed or had the option to work with and for the community at the current phase.  For the next year, the hope is to begin a trial that works with a transplant team to further understand complications that are or areas that need more work and attention. Transplants are not a constant occurrence in the medical community in terms of the more valuable organs such as the heart and the lungs, so first understanding how often the app would end up being utilized would also be very important.  Within the next year we hope to begin serving close to 50-100 transplant cases, which also includes doctors, nurse, and the transplant teams.  

Our current impact goals are to begin the construction of the app at hand, and further understand the statistics of the current community, for example the occurrence of the occasion and what other action needs to be taken to make improvements. We hope to begin communicating with possible clients, especially during further rises in COVID-19 cases. By further begin able to relate to the statistics of the situation we can best serve those that would use the app. 

As we get farther along in the process, we will begin to see more of the impacts of the app at hand.  We will see cases of lost organs in transit begin to decrease.  We hope to see more hospitals and medical organizations to use the app to further aid the process for patients, nurses and doctors. In terms of a goal that cannot be measured in numbers, we can also see those using the app undergoing very stressful and intense situations with more ease and higher success rates.

With COVID-19, our goals might be harder to meet, as healthcare workers face more challenges than before when it comes to patient care.  In addition as we look towards goals farther int he future, financially creating the app itself will be expensive and require a large team of people from all different fields to contribute.  Legal problems could also be associated with the goals at hand, as we face a small margin for error when working within such a high demand and advanced industry of medicine. 

With the recent Boulder County Wildfires, the community around us has been significantly affected, and even down to the patients in the nearby hospitals understanding the significance of medical professionals in a situation such as this, whether they directly or indirectly included.  Through these recent events we are able to further understand that in intense and important situations all those involved are crucial and impactful.  In addition I have participated in various other challenges to propose solutions to other various problems we face as a community when it comes to any and all aspects of healthcare. When we implement our app into the surrounding areas we will be able to understand how crucial these practices really are for the lives of those around us.

We do not currently partner with any organizations, but in the future hope to partner and work with some of the smaller hospitals in the area, or even air transit companies with designated medical vehicles such as airplanes and helicopters.  By working with a specific customer that would be using the app we can further expand across the country and reach more in need of organ donations.