Pill Pal is a user-friendly application designed to help you manage your health by tracking your medication schedule and connecting you with supportive communities.
Here’s a visual walkthrough of Pill Pal.
- Inspiration
- What it Does
- How We Built It
- Challenges
- Accomplishments
- What We Learned
- What's Next
- Tech Stack
- Credits
The idea for Pill Pal emerged when a team member shared a personal story about their parents, who struggle with taking medications on time.
Managing medication schedules manually is time-consuming and overwhelming, especially for older adults.
There was also a lack of a supportive community for people facing similar challenges.
This sparked the idea to create an app that not only helps users manage their medication but also connects them to a supportive community.
Pill Pal is a medication management app designed to simplify tracking and community support.
Key features include:
- Medication Tracker: Dashboard to track medication schedules, set reminders, and mark doses as taken.
- Community Forum: Interactive space to connect, ask questions, and share experiences.
- Caretaker Support: Add caretakers to view schedules, alerts, and refill needs.
- Live Map Integration: Google Maps API for locating pharmacies and healthcare facilities.
- OCR & Text Detection: OpenAI and Tesseract.js scan medication labels for accuracy.
- Chatbot Support: Tidio chatbot for instant user assistance.
- Educational Widgets: Learn More features for drug interaction insights.
- Frontend: Next.js for a dynamic and responsive user experience.
- Backend: Django and Django REST Framework for authentication, scheduling, and forum management.
- Database: SQLite to store user data, medication schedules, and forum posts.
- APIs & Integrations:
- Google Maps API for location-based services
- OpenAI API + Tesseract.js for OCR
- Tidio chatbot for real-time support
- Flarum for the community forum
- Time Constraints: Building the app during a hackathon meant prioritizing features carefully.
- Feature Balancing: Making both the medication tracker and forum user-friendly was challenging.
- User Engagement: Iterating forum design for high engagement took extra effort.
- Integrated multiple powerful features into a cohesive app under time constraints.
- Successfully integrated Google Maps, OpenAI, Tesseract.js, and Tidio.
- Created a tool that helps users manage medication while fostering a supportive community.
- User-Centric Design: Always prioritize solving the real pain points for users.
- Community Building: Community features boost engagement and project value.
- Technical Balance: Integrating real-time features while keeping the app responsive was a key learning curve.
- Feature Expansion: Notifications for refills, personalized health insights, deeper healthcare integrations.
- Community Growth: More specialized groups for different health conditions.
- Mobile App: On-the-go medication tracking and community interaction.
| Language / Framework | Usage |
|---|---|
| TypeScript (84.8%) | React frontend development |
| Python (13.3%) | Django backend |
| CSS (1.2%) | Styling |
| JavaScript (0.7%) | Frontend scripting |
Backend: Django
Frontend: React + Next.js
Built for HackED 2025 by Dricmoy Bhattacharjee and team.