AI Risk App for Preeclampsia and Gestational Diabetes

Preeclampsia and gestational diabetes cause adverse outcomes for mothers when risk is not detected early.

An AI-based app that detects risk of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes early, provides dietary recommendations and risk-modification strategies based on the risk group, and links high-risk women directly with hospitals for emergency care. Dietary recommendations would draw on local food sources.

My name is Mitchelle Olonde and I am a 4th year medical student. I love reading non-fiction books and novels. I am also a big fan of movies and that is what I do whenever I am not dealing with medical school pressures. The thing that motivated me to join DREAM, in all honesty, was a certain classmate of mine. I am a person who sticks to books most of the time and it never crossed my mind to participate, but the aforementioned classmate who was also participating challenged me to do so. The dream I intended to achieve was to create an AI based app that would detect risks of preeclampsia and gestational diabetes early, then provide dietary recommendations and risk modification strategies based on the risk group, and directly link high risk women with hospitals for emergency care. This would help reduce the adverse outcomes associated with the two diseases. The most interesting thing about the app would have been the dietary recommendations, which would be from local food sources. The one moment during the DREAM project that changed my perspective was when they announced the winners. This moment mattered to me because I always thought that great people in history had superhuman abilities, but the moment my classmate won the competition led to a significant paradigm shift in that thought. I got challenged and I learnt that one doesn't need to overdo anything: just find a problem afflicting people, fall in love with that problem and have a strong desire to find a solution to it. The best projects, as I learnt, were the simplest ones but which would have the greatest impact on people. DREAM instilled in me great values and skills. The most notable is innovative capacity. I learnt how to pitch my idea to people in a manner that would convince them to buy it. I also learnt about teamwork and the importance of positive people in one's life. Without that classmate of mine, to whom I'm eternally grateful, I wouldn't have gotten to meet such great minds nor to participate in the competition. The DREAM community was a vibrant network of innovators and people who are extremely passionate about science. Each and every person involved in DREAM impacted me in one way or the other. The most significant impact was from the president of the DREAM project, Naomi Bett. I was on the verge of giving up a day before the first pitch, but when I messaged her informing her of my intended failure to show up, she encouraged me and told me to just go and put my idea out there; someone would like it. And it worked: I showed up, did the pitch and felt so proud of myself. Participating in DREAM has shaped my aspirations moving forward in that I will modify my idea by doing more extensive research into it and see if it can be incorporated somewhere. In addition to this, I would like to challenge myself to generate more ideas which will create solutions to the many problems that face our communities. Thank you.