UPES student develops telemedicine app ‘Spotdoc’

Most of the telemedicine applications available in the market are devoid of features like e-prescription and home delivery option for medicines. Telemedicine app makes optimum use of AI to do an immediate prediction of diseases and suggests specialists who can help in treating the symptoms

As the number of COVID patients continue to rise in India, people fear visiting hospitals or clinics for any medical issue. In such a situation, telemedicine is the answer to people’s healthcare-related needs as it enables the treatment of diseases from remote locations. A research team at UPES, comprising Dr. Anirban Chowdhury, Faculty and Coordinator of Interaction Design Program and R & D Coordinator at UPES School of Design and Ambika Negi, 3rd Year B.Des. student, grabbed the opportunity of designing an interface for a telemedicine application to detect COVID-19 symptoms.

Dr. Chowdhary informs, “Though there are a few applications available in the market, there are many drawbacks such as Heart Rate (HR) monitoring, Blood Pressure (BP) monitoring, prescribing medication based on the availability in local pharmacy, buying medicines online, etc. Therefore, the objective of this project is to design a mobile app which will have functions such as online consultancy with doctors (through video/ audio calls) along with online HR and BP check, e-prescription, online order of medicine from nearby pharmacy, and SOS button for ambulance facility. An AI-based chatbot was also planned for the prediction of COVID-19 symptoms.”

Spotdoc can perform COVID-19 AI based analysis of symptoms. Ambika who led the invention says, “The app helps in AI based prediction of disease based on immediate symptoms that enables the patient to predict COVID-19 symptoms. The app has been devised with developed new-technologies and includes features like monitoring blood pressure and heart rate, along with SOS call for ambulance.” The team explains that most of the telemedicine apps available in the market are devoid of features like e-prescription and home delivery option for medicines, whereas Spotdoc makes optimum use of AI to do an immediate prediction of the diseases and suggests specialists who can help in treating symptoms.

The application enables a patient to consult the specialists online (through audio and video calls) and doctors can then generate an e-prescription to patients, explains Ambika. “The app,” she says, “further suggests nearby pharmacists who can provide patients with the medicines prescribed.”

The application is expected to be launched in the market by the end of 2020. It will be functional in several Indian languages to make it user friendly. Available languages would be Hindi, Tamil, Bengali and English with a voice assistance for the visually challenged.