BENGALURU: Organ transplantation may be considered one of the biggest achievements of medical science but the process is still riddled with ambiguity and scope for mismanagement. But now, thanks to Pratik Mohapatra, we may have an AI solution for such situations. The 21-year-old engineering student from Bengaluru won the third position at Microsoft 2019 AI for Good Idea Challenge for his novel concept, OrganSecure.
Mohapatra says he got the idea from a web series, where the main character dies due to not receiving the organ on time. “Here, more than the need of a patient, the time of registration for an organ is considered important,” says Mohapatra, a final year computer science engineering student at RV College of Engineering.
Here’s where OrganSecure could change the game. It uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tools to record the donor’s and patient’s details, such as blood group and platelet count. “It analyses whether the person is a smoker, an alcoholic or whether they have taken any steroid or medications,” he explained. If a patient needs an organ, his information is matched against the donor list to find a right fit.
Mohapatra, who has experience in the field, developed OrganSecure by himself. His first attempt at application development was at the age of 14, when he created a calculator that was rolled out on Windows Phone Store. “I have interned at Zomato, Lloyd and Microsoft. So the product development part was easier,” he said, adding that he hopes to start his own venture in the future. OrganSecure is currently in Alpha mode but Mohapatra wants to make it available for public in Karnataka within seven months.
The competition, with over 1,000 applications, was won by Bohdan Petryshak for CardioVision, a solution that can help prevent heart attacks by detecting coronary artery disease up to three times faster than traditional methods. The second prize was won by Maanasa Mendu for LeafAI, an app that can identify 38 classes of plant diseases from a smartphone photo.