Conscious Care | Devpost

Main Page
Explains what the application is about
Disclaimer for the doctors using the application
Selection page to choose the information being searched
Religion Category
Ethnicity Category
An example of a low income neighborhood
An example of a higher income neighborhood

There is this notion that the Canadian healthcare system is equal for all. Unfortunately, that is not the case for many groups including various visible minorities and low-income families in Canada. Health care is a complex issue. Western medicine has developed into a subculture with its own history, language, expectations, and technologies. It is thought that humans have biological constants that transcend cultural boundaries. So, why pay attention to culture in healthcare? Knowledge of culture can help us understand and identify connections between socially normative behaviours and morbidity, mortality, and health-seeking behaviour. These are just some of the important epidemiological and public health reasons. Culture affects everything, from the naming of symptoms to communication styles, treatment decisions, and as well the processes taken to make those decisions. Therefore, awareness of the social determinants of health can help medical professionals to provide the best ethical and professional care. “The proportion of the foreign-born population is at its highest in 70 years and about two-thirds of current population growth is the result of migratory increase” in Canada. Clearly, this issue is affecting a large population of Canadians making it so important to acknowledge and try to rectify.

This app was prototyped using a UX/UI platform called Figma, and while we had some first-time hackers in the team, we all learned and worked together to make this idea come to life. A huge challenge that we faced while creating this prototype was making sure the information provided was factually correct and did not reinforce stereotypes or unknowingly offend someone. For example, we ended up replacing “Aboriginal” to “Indigenous” after our research deemed it to be the more appropriate terminology.

Due to the time constraints, we were only able to make a very basic prototype, but with more time, we would make an app using Flutter to allow usage for both Android and iOS. Moreover, we would add some features like interaction, searching for specific problems, and of course, try to compile accurate information on as many diverse groups as possible.