Halunas (“Halong Lunas” or Mixed Cure)

An alternative to symptom tracking of anaphylaxis and dose administration by detecting vital change, injecting epinephrine, and locating medical personnel.

As indicated by the World Allergy Organization in 2020, anaphylaxis is a severe, life-threatening systemic hypersensitivity reaction; being rapid onset with potentially life-threatening airway, breathing, or circulatory problems. Though certain issues had their fair share in health discussions, anaphylaxis is rarely discussed in the Philippines let alone the region. In the Philippine General Hospital of Manila, 56.7% of anaphylaxis patients were adults with the rest as pediatric over the course of 4 years. If one hospital alone has statistics of such, the possibility of anaphylaxis occurring in different regions or even countries would only show that more people had to go through this condition.

Halunas aims to detect Anaphylaxis through a device attached to the hip for vital tracking, injecting epinephrine upon determination of such allergic reaction. Afterwards, the app would inform the user once a dose of epinephrine has been injected and present a list of hospitals or medical centers they may contact close to their location. By utilizing sensors and Python’s programming language, the device can retrieve information from the sensors and act accordingly with the needle prepared for site injection.

In terms of age range, mostly adults are known to be affected by anaphylactic shock which makes them our target audience; however, future modifications could attain to teenagers and younger audiences by making the packaging smaller and using size-appropriate components for the epinephrine reservoir and other if deemed necessary with more research. Although countries usually have a percentage equal or lower than 5% with anaphylaxis, it is equally important to give them cheaper options to help maintain their condition without additional assistance.

We’re a group of 10 junior students from Philippine Science High School - Cagayan Valley, a premiere science high school advancing STEM education for the people, with diverse interests in natural sciences and technological ideas. Aside from being student leaders in different school groups and activities (ex. Student Government, Public Speaking, Music & Arts), we’ve also individually proven our determination through research studies and even internationally and locally recognized projects across different members.

For Halunas, specifically, we’ve delved into conversations with co-scholars to teachers and even a medical professional in the span of weeks. It's on recognizing that the people involved may be in our daily lives despite the limited talk on the topic, knowing that we can potentially give them ease financially and purposefully.

In order for us to enhance our understanding and awareness of the topics related to our innovation, the team has done research which can be accessed for your reference. We have also sent out a survey on our campus with regards to assessing the current knowledge of our schoolmates on the said topics and their experience if they have had any.

As far as collaboration goes, the team would still have to contact certain organizations or possible institutions in order to execute a working prototype and launch the idea for commercialization. Nevertheless, the team is willing to exert more efforts in enhancing the device design and related components for the application.

Medical devices surrounding Halunas are equal in purpose of maintaining a person’s vitals; however, these devices are (most of the time) geared toward those who have diabetes based on our current research. Furthermore, they serve one purpose mainly. On the side of epinephrine-injecting devices, most of them are expensive and one-use – making them less eco-friendly but more costly.

Halunas aims for the user to buy the gadget once and only need refills of the needle and epinephrine doses which costs way less than buying one injector pen per month that cannot be reused. We believe its impact on the market would be game changing as not only would our device help in injecting the dose, but it would also track the user’s vitals and provide possible health centers that can assist the person for urgent aftercare.

Not only do we aim to provide a new approach to injecting epinephrine into the body, but we’d also like to open the discussion surrounding allergic reactions in the Philippines - especially toward the after effects such as anaphylaxis. We’d like to open the idea for potential investors and intrigue people in the fields such as medical technology and manufacturing engineering to help us make this concept into an actual product. To see the product come to life is one thing, but to help someone with anaphylaxis would mean so much more.

Halunas would make use of a lever-system and a coding software to control the device, existing as a combination of an autoinjector and sensor. The concepts and ideas behind the system (from anaphylaxis to the device itself) can be found in a series of resource files tallying to 33 pages worth of information toward the science and technology behind the project. These files may be retrieved by contacting the team leader for access.

Our innovation, being just a concept for now, is currently not serving people yet. However, once we launch our solution, our target reach would be that of Nueva Vizcaya province in the Philippines, and other nearby provinces. From that, we will gradually increase our reach locally,  to the whole Philippines, and hopefully even globally.

Halunas is based on current devices namely Dexcom, Omnipod, and the EpiPen serving purposes and approaches that are similar to the team’s device. We are well aware that all we’ve mentioned are only possible components that could work together, but have not been personally tested or vouched for by the team with physical evidence since we don’t have a prototype; however, this can be possible with the help of external funding from groups such as the Solv[Ed] team. Ideally, the group plans on having Halunas patented within the school year as well.

No partnerships have been created; however, potential partnerships with institutions such as the Department of Science and Technology can be made possible with more discussion toward memorandums of agreement and contracts.

This medical device will be regarded as a basic part of health systems, the advantages it can offer keep growing since it is necessary for the safe and effective prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of anaphylaxis. As the device itself could last longer than other autoinjectors, its characteristics being reusable, rechargeable, and refillable significantly lower its costs.

After the first purchase, the user only has to worry about buying new needles and epinephrine doses along with regular device charging. Compared to one-use injectors, Halunas only needs refills of certain components in order for it to function in the long run. These can then be purchased at a local pharmacy with prescriptions from their doctors as proof of need. The cost of one dose of epinephrine is significantly cheaper than one quantity of an epinephrine pen.

Upon considering the material price of each component, value of labor and possible marketplace fees would be considered in the overall total.  To consider possible agencies that can fund the project may include the nation’s Department of Science & Technology (DOST) – being a key government organization in promoting Research and Development (R&D) and supporting Filipino-owned startups.

Programs such as DOST’s Start Up Research Grant Program and Youth Empowerment through Technopreneurship (YET) Program can aid the team financially. Said fund would be used to finance R&D activities by qualified startups with the goal of advancing the core technologies, expanding the market potential of the products, and improving the current goods, procedures, or services.

As sales would increase every year in every country with more dealers, more qualified investors could partake in particular markets and remain intrigued. Increasing the dealer’s enthusiasm and maintaining the connection, product loyalty to the device would be ensured for long term partnerships.