SilverLining | Devpost

Inspiration

Silver Lining was inspired by a recurring reality in rural and underserved communities: when severe weather hits, healthcare does not simply slow down—it becomes fragmented. Appointments are missed, patients become unreachable, and nurses are forced into reactive coordination using phone calls, spreadsheets, and informal outreach.

At the same time, we noticed something powerful. In many communities, care does not actually stop during storms—it shifts to volunteers, neighbors, and caregivers. However, this support system is informal, invisible, and uncoordinated, creating risk for both patients and healthcare staff. Silver Lining was created to formalize this existing community behavior into a safe, structured system that clinics can trust and patients can rely on—turning goodwill into a real safety net.

What it does

Silver Lining is a community-powered care coordination platform designed to keep patients connected to care during severe weather events.

The platform allows nurses and care coordinators to:

Monitor storm risk and patient vulnerability in one centralized dashboard
Automatically trigger storm check-ins and care tasks
Coordinate volunteer transportation and wellness checks
Maintain full visibility and control through real-time activity logs and escalation paths

Patients receive simple check-ins and transport support, while volunteers are guided through clearly defined, nurse-approved missions. When traditional healthcare workflows break down during storms, Silver Lining ensures continuity of care through structured community response.

How we built it

Silver Lining is built as a native iOS application using SwiftUI with an MVVM architecture to clearly separate views, state, and business logic.

The app integrates:

Firebase (Firestore + Auth) for real-time data sync and role-based access
OpenAI (GPT-4) to assist with storm-risk analysis and task prioritization
Weather APIs to contextualize storm conditions and trigger Storm Mode
Twilio SMS for low-friction patient check-ins and communication
Apple MapKit for routing and zone-based volunteer matching

The system was designed to be modular, demo-ready, and scalable, prioritizing real-time updates, explainable automation, and minimal disruption to existing healthcare workflows.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges was balancing automation with trust. In healthcare—especially during emergencies—over-automation can feel unsafe. We addressed this by ensuring Silver Lining supports decision-making rather than replacing it: nurses remain in control, every automated action is visible and logged, and all workflows are reversible.

Another challenge was scope. Storm response introduces many edge cases, so we intentionally focused on high-impact coordination problems—transportation, check-ins, and follow-ups—while avoiding medical decision-making to keep the system safe and realistic within a hackathon timeline.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Built a multi-role iOS app with live demo flows for patients, volunteers, and care coordinators
Designed a Storm Mode feature that automatically coordinates community response
Implemented a volunteer matching approach that prioritizes reliability and availability
Created a solution that is both technically credible and deeply human-centered
Aligned technology with real-world community behavior instead of forcing new workflows

What we learned

We learned that resilience in healthcare often comes less from new infrastructure and more from better coordination of what already exists. Nurses do not need more tools—they need tools that reduce cognitive load. Communities do not need to be invented—they need to be empowered safely.

Most importantly, we learned that technology can act as the quiet glue that holds care together during moments of disruption.

What's next for Silver Lining

Next steps include:

SMS-only workflows for patients without smartphones
Enhanced volunteer credentialing and training tiers
Deeper analytics on avoided missed appointments and escalations
Partnerships with rural clinics and public health agencies
Expansion beyond storms to other disruptions such as heatwaves and power outages

Silver Lining’s long-term vision is to become the community care layer that activates whenever traditional systems are under stress—because every storm deserves a silver lining.