Healthcare innovation

I conducted a design thinking process to reach a final solution, a prototype for a speculum using Machine Learning.

Seeking to improve the accessibility of low-income women to cervical screening tests in the city of Cali, the design team developed various prototypes using the Design Thinking methodology. Among these prototypes were: Encanto, an educational manicure service; No le des la espalda a la citología, a media-based strategy; Tu turnero ESE: an educational wireless queuing device in the waiting room; and Citobot: a cervical cancer early detection device, system, and method (Arrivillaga et al. 2020).

Encanto: a service to freely make up the nails of several women in a healthcare center, we trained manicurists aiming to provide information about cervix cancer, general information about the disease, how it can be early detected through Pap smears, and demystification about general accepted wrong ideas in society and acquaintances.

No le des la espalda a la citología ('do not turn your back on cytology'): a campaign to improve information accessibility for women to take cytology. We launched the campaign through different means: a YouTube channel, WhatsApp and Short Message Service (SMS), and Bluetooth messages using Beacons.

Tu turnero ESE: a campaign harnessing the time in a waiting room inside a healthcare center. The campaign involved an app with a survey which inquired women's knowledge regarding prevention and attitudes of cervix cancer. The final message after the survey encouraged women to take a Pap test.

Citobot: a device to detect precancerous lessons in an instant mode using Machine Learning algorithms whose usage would be an alternative to the current and uncomfortable speculum. Women will be benefited in various manners: more comfort, less waiting time to receive their results, more accuracy since nurseries or physicians could verify immediately the system outcome (if necessary), more patients are able to have access to the test and then higher level of prevention in hard-to-reach places, less likelihood to keep misconceptions about cytology, and finally more chances to reduce deaths annually in women due to cervix cancer.

During the time period from May to December 2018, I was under the supervision of Juan Pablo García-Cifuentes and Marcela Arrivillaga.