On May 3rd, 2019 Cyclone Fani made landfall near Puri, India. The storm was the largest and most destructive cyclone to hit the country in 20 years; over 70 people were killed, and more than a million were evacuated. Those who fled were spared the brunt of the storms floods and brutal winds, but their homes, businesses, and communities were devastated.
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Making sense of a deluge of aid
How floods in the wake of Cyclone Fani inspired an AI solution to sorting medicines during disaster relief efforts
Unfortunately, Cyclone Fani was not an isolated incident. Natural disasters are all too common; and thanks to rising global temperatures, conditions like drought, melting ice caps, and moist air have contributed to an increase in natural disasters such as fires, floods and storms. As these disasters increase in ferocity and frequency, finding solutions to the problems that face affected communities are becoming even more important.
To tackle the issues that face communities in the wake of natural disasters, IBM launched Code and Response: an open source initiative that connects technology developers from around the world to find innovative solutions for disaster victims.
Health care is one such problem that needs solutions. During Fani, over 1,000 public health facilities were destroyed - right when they were needed most. In addition, aid in the form of temporary shelter, clothing, food, medicine, and more poured in from around the world. But at times, volunteers with little or no medical training were overwhelmed by the supply. So without enough trained pharmacists on the ground to organize the donations, doctors weren’t able to access the stocks of medicine.
So one developer, Sagar Rivankar from Persistent Systems, took advantage of the Call for Code hackathon (which was supported by Code and Response) to address that issue. Sparked by his own experiences volunteering, he created a disaster relief app called Rx Pharmacist.
“I had to organize medicines so that doctors could have medicines for their usage for their patients,” says Sagar. “As I was working there, I realized that if we could put technology in this part of a disaster… that’s going to be helpful. So Rx Pharmacist fills the gap, in what a pharmacist would ideally do.”
The app uses visual recognition to scan and sort medicines, and works even when there’s no internet connectivity. The stock available is stored as an organized ledger, thanks to the analytics platform IBM Cloud Pak for Data. It’s simple enough for a volunteer to use, which is critical when pharmacists aren’t available. That means medicine for water-borne disease, pre-existing conditions, infections, and even surgical anesthesia get in the right hands faster.
Sagar credits the Call for Code hackathon (supported by Code and Response) for making the app possible.
“Call for Code... was a motivation for me to build a solution. Today I have a product which would be useful for society and which can be used in any disaster.”
Open source initiatives, like IBM Code and Response, are pushing developers to make a difference in the lives of millions. Learn more.