- Brothers Aarin and Aarav won the Congressional App Challenge for the Eighth District with Congressman Austin Scott.
- The brothers will be heading to D.C. to present their creation to the U.S. Congress in April.
- Watch the video to see how this app helps patients with post-surgery communication.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Communication in the medical field just got a bit easier... thanks to these Lowndes County students.
I'm Malia Thomas, your neighborhood reporter in Valdosta.
During my last story in Hahira, I had heard about on of their middle school students developing a Congressionally recognized app.
Now, I'm following up with those students.
Meet the Dave brothers. Aarin is the older one, attending Lowndes High. Aarav is the one attending Hahira Middle.
They take a STEM course together called App Inventors and like to make a difference with their work.
Last year, they created a Congressional award-winning school safety app called Safeology; now, Aarav tells me they're focusing on the medical field.
"ICUSpeak is an app that bridged communication barriers in the hospital."
Their instructor, Laila Taylor, was a heavy influence in the project as her father-in-law struggled with communicating only using hand gestures after his own surgery.
She tells me she was touched with the boys deciding take their assignment in that direction and creating something...
"...that can be used in the industry and presenting it to Medtronic's and to doctors and to patients... it just doesn't get any better than that."
Especially with at least one communication failure contributing to patient injury occurring in 28% of post-op cases, according to science direct.com.
Taylor was so impressed with the final product, she entered them in the Congressional App Challenge for the Eighth District with Congressman Austin Scott, where they won for the second time.
Aarav tells me with their latest win, him and his brother got big plans for the app.
"We're planning a major user face overhaul, and this is because every time we meet with new doctors and nurses, we always find new things to change in the app."
The Dave brothers will visit Washington, D.C. to present the improved ICUSpeak to U.S. Congress. In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, ABC27.
