Ally was created to address the growing need for a confidential, secure, and accessible platform for individuals seeking information and support related to sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Our goal is to empower users by offering health tracking, appointment management, and resource guidance—without compromising their privacy.
Ally helps potential STD patients in the following ways:
- Health Condition Tracking: Patients can monitor their symptoms, test results, and medications.
- Confidential Health Suggestions: Ally offers personalized guidance based on the patient’s input, helping them make informed health decisions.
- Appointment Management: Users can schedule, track, and get reminders for medical appointments to ensure they stay on top of their care.
- Secure Document Vault: All sensitive health documents, including test results and medical records, are stored in a secure, encrypted vault for safe retrieval.
- Resource Locator: Ally helps users find local clinics, doctors, and support resources to get the help they need.
The backend was built using FastAPI, a high-performance framework that allows us to handle user requests quickly and securely. We use AES encryption to secure sensitive data and RSA encryption to secure the encryption keys.
- AES Encryption: Used to encrypt patient files and sensitive health data.
- RSA Encryption: Used to encrypt the AES encryption key, ensuring that even if an attacker gains access to the encrypted data, they cannot decrypt it without the private RSA key.
- Data Deletion: After encryption, the original unencrypted files are deleted to add an extra layer of security, reducing the risk of data compromise.
The frontend is built with React, ensuring an intuitive and user-friendly interface for our users. It allows easy access to features such as appointments, test records, and the document vault.
- Appointments: Schedule, manage, and track medical appointments, with automated reminders.
- Test Records: Track test results and record the status of health checks.
- Timeline: View a timeline of health events, appointments, and test results for a comprehensive overview.
- Resource Locator: Find local clinics, STD testing centers, and healthcare providers with ease.
- Document Vault: Securely store and access encrypted health documents like test results and medical records.
- Ensuring Data Privacy and Security: Encrypting sensitive health data using AES and securely managing RSA keys posed a significant challenge. We needed to make sure that all patient data is protected at rest and during transfer.
- User Accessibility: Designing a platform that is both secure and easy to use for people of all technical skill levels was crucial. We had to balance between security measures and user experience.
- Integrating Health Data: Finding reliable and up-to-date sources of STD-related health information that users can trust was essential.
- Robust Encryption: We successfully implemented AES and RSA encryption, ensuring that all sensitive patient data is protected at multiple levels.
- Confidentiality: By deleting unencrypted files after encryption, we are adding an extra layer of security to protect users from data breaches.
- User-Centric Design: Ally is designed with user-friendliness in mind. We ensured that individuals who may not be tech-savvy can still navigate the platform with ease.
- End-to-End Solution: Ally provides a comprehensive solution for managing health data, making it easier for patients to stay informed and on top of their care.
- Encryption and Security Best Practices: Implementing AES and RSA taught us the importance of strong encryption in healthcare applications. Securing sensitive data is essential to maintaining trust.
- User Experience in Sensitive Contexts: We learned how to design platforms that cater to sensitive user needs. Empathy plays a key role in providing support for individuals dealing with potentially stigmatizing health issues.
- Scalability and Performance: FastAPI enabled us to scale the application to handle multiple user requests efficiently, while React allowed us to create an intuitive and responsive frontend.
- Sharding Document Files: To enhance performance and scalability, we plan to shard document files, ensuring efficient storage and retrieval of sensitive health data.
- Multi-Language Support: We will add language options depending on the user's region to ensure that everyone can access health resources in their preferred language.
- Scraping for Updates: We plan to scrape trusted medical sources to keep the health resources section up-to-date with the latest STD-related information.
- Mobile App: The next step is to develop a mobile app using Flutter so users can access their health records and appointment schedules on the go.
- Backend: FastAPI, Python
- Frontend: React
- Encryption: AES, RSA
- Storage: Secure cloud-based storage for health data
- Authentication: OAuth or custom authentication for user security message.txt 6 KB