AutoPatch

Inspiration

A member of our team underwent heart valve replacement surgery, and subsequently needed to take warfarin. However, it had an adverse effect on her lifestyle, requiring her to visit the hospital frequently and posed dangers in bleeding and thrombosis if taken incorrectly. We decided to tackle this issue that many patients on warfarin face by automating the dosing adjustments through a point-of-care device and variable warfarin transdermal patch.

What it does

Measures the patient's INR and adjusts the dosage of warfarin applied through the patch. The measurement can be done through a finger prick and a single drop of blood, which is then converted to a specific warfarin dosage that's communicated to the patch wirelessly. The variable dosage in the patch is achieved through voltage controlled drug reservoirs which open upon recieving data from the INR measurement device. The patch is then simply placed on the upper arm and left until dosing is complete.

How I built it

We have a team of skilled engineers with experience in medical devices and a member with medical research experience. Together we brainstormed the problems anticoagulant patients face, and the best areas to target with our product that can provide the greatest improvement to their quality of life. Consequently, it also provides a competitive advantage to warfarin manufacturers to stay above the rising competition.

Challenges I ran into

The technicalities of the product, but with thorough research we determined that all the technologies required are already available and simply need to incorporate them together

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Many of the technical details and feasibility have been addressed, which is a good achievement for 2 days.

What I learned

About the huge market surrounding anticoagulants and how to quickly develop ideas, but the challenges faced when trying to highlight only the important points to send a clear message

What's next for AutoPatch

Finalising the technical aspects and patenting the idea. We can then contact pharmaceutical companies to license the idea and perform medical trials.