ANUBHAV
Using CS to solve psoriasis
"My dad and two other members of my family have psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that does not have any permanent cure. As a curious teen, I watched with interest when my dad adopted a particular diet to try to reduce the severity of his symptoms, and it took more than a month to realize that his change in diet actually worsened the condition. Upon further investigation, I learned that his experience wasn’t unique. I discovered that food, stress, and lifestyle choices among other factors can play a major role in alleviating symptoms or causing flare ups depending on each person. It is often challenging for patients to identify such minute changes as improvements or deterioration without waiting for a long time for changes to be visually observable.
Patients are unable to quantify the severity of the disease by themselves and have to rely on expensive doctor visits in order to make informed lifestyle choices. Although I had little experience in programming, and no expertise in psoriasis, I wondered if I could create a fully automatic computer- assisted method that could help my dad and millions of others to better understand and manage the impact of their lifestyle choices on their disease by simply taking a photo. This possibility of creating an impact for those suffering from psoriasis, propels me to expand my knowledge through research and acquire additional programming skills to make this possibility into a reality.
I currently have a functional AI powered computer program that accurately identifies psoriasis in photos, and now I am working to integrate this program into an app to make the process immediately useful to anyone with a smart phone."
Listen to his FULL interview below!
Anubhav's Impact Project
Computer Assisted Index (CAI) for evaluating the severity of Psoriasis
Psoriasis occurs in various forms throughout the body. In clinical trials and research, physicians utilize a tool known as the psoriasis area severity index (PASI) to evaluate the severity of psoriasis. Calculation of severity is based on the subjective judgment of the clinician. This often causes deviations to occur in the evaluation of the disease. Additionally, such evaluations may be economically unfeasible for the patient. Hence, there is a need for a simpler way patients can determine and quantify the unique way their lifestyle choices affect the intensity of their condition.
This is why Anubhav create a system to detect the degree of severity in people with psoriasis. At the moment, it is still a working prototype but Anubhav is working on the mobile application version which will be more convenient and can be made widely accessible. Users will simply take a photo of the psoriasis patch(es) over regular intervals to monitor it. Additionally, the app will allow users to log which lifestyle choices were beneficial and which ones they need to avoid.
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