17-year-old Aryaman Kunzru developed a speaking mobile app that reminds the elderly to stick to their medicine-intake routines
To be able to get alerts to take their medicine would be a boon for senior citizens. So, inspired by the problems faced by his grandmother, 17-year-old Aryaman Kunzru developed a speaking mobile app that reminds the elderly to stick to their medicine-intake routines.
Kunzru is a student in 12th grade at the Canadian International School in Hong Kong. “Dawai Dost is designed to help our elderly. This app keeps track of their schedules and reminds them to take their medicines,” said Kunzru.
Also, notably, since the elderly have trouble using touch screen phones, the app gives out voice notifications to remind them of their schedules. Currently, the app is integrated with two langauges — Hindi and Tamil.
“This is certainly a blessing for the senior citizens who may not be well-versed with English or are more comfortable with the native tongue,” Kunzru told DNA. “There are helpful audio tutorials for many of the screens, so that the users have an easy voice-based instruction on what needs to be done at each stage of the date entry.”
The user can take a photo of the medicine packet with the cellphone camera or feed the information manually, along with a specific time when it needs to be consumed. Once that is done, the app will remind the user of when the medicines need to be taken, as well as when they are approaching their expiry dates, via visual notifications (text) and audio notifications (a voice message recorded in the local language).
Being home to around 10.4 crore persons over the age of 60, India has a huge population of elderly people with chronic diseases like dementia and memory loss, with nobody to look after them. This leads to frequent lapses in consumption of medicines, or consumption post expiry dates that then causes their condition to deteriorate further.
Kunzru extensively researched various app stores to check for existing apps of this nature. While there were a few health apps which helped fitness lovers at large to monitor their daily habits, most of them were highly advanced. He identified the need to bridge the gap that existed between the technological boom of today and assistance for the older generation to maintain their medicine routine.
With no technical training to lean on, Kunzru learnt how to build an app from scratch. He took online courses, developed first version to be Android compatible and he tested it with his family and friends to identify the snags. “I began development 18 months ago. I completed my first version in June, after which I conducted a few small-scale rounds of testing,” he said.
He even conducted a trial-run with HelpAge India. The app is now available on Google Play Store for public use.
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