16-year-old designs life-saving app for elderly

A 16-year-old has designed a mobile application that hopes to save lives in case of a medical emergency or a road accident by automatically sending alerts to the person’s contacts.

Gurugram resident Ishan Varshney initially designed the ReachEx app with the intention of helping senior citizens, such as his 75-year-old grandmother, who live alone and may find themselves in trouble, such as stumbling and falling, losing consciousness, suffering a heart attack and so on. “We moved to Gurugram a few years ago, but my grandmother still lives in Delhi. We constantly worry about what would happen if she were to get hurt and isn’t able to reach us in time,” says the Class 10 student of The Shri Ram School, Moulsari.

“My uncle met with an accident on a highway. There was nobody around to save him. The police saw his car three hours after the accident. We couldn’t save him,” he says.

The prototype shows that ReachEx runs in the background on a mobile phone, and reacts to information from an accelerometer, which is a built-in electronic component that measures tilt and motion. If there is a sudden impact, say due to a car collision or after falling on the ground, the phone senses the motion and sends an SOS message to two pre-selected contact numbers along with the GPS location, explains Varshney.

An additional feature in the app reminds the elderly about their daily dosage of medicines and upcoming doctor’s appointments. “Information can be filled once and can be constantly updated by the user or his/her family members. It can also send a reminder to replenish medicine stock when they are about to run out.”