People experiencing homelessness face significant health inequalities, poorer health outcomes and a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population. Blopup, a project by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and NGO Salut Sense Sostre, seeks to screen, diagnose, treat and track adherence to treatment for highly vulnerable groups - beginning with the homeless population in Barcelona.
Thoughtworks is partnering with UPC to help build a mobile application that will connect to diagnostic instruments used in the field by the teams visiting patients. That information – blood pressure and other vitals – will be uploaded to an OpenMRS server that medical staff will then access to review and suggest treatments.
The Thoughtworks team began collaborating with students and staff from UPC, medical professionals and members of Salut Sense Sostre in July 2022 - the project is ongoing and the tool is to be released in beta this month. The first tests with real patients started in May 2023.
The app, Blopup, will enable the network of organizations to track their work, create efficiencies for volunteers in the field and the medical teams providing support – and offer a secure and stable environment for personal and medical data. The main measures of success are: to get an accurate picture of the proportion of homeless people with high blood pressure in Barcelona, increase their adherence to medical treatment over time and observe a reduction of their high blood pressure that will ultimately lead to an increase in life expectancy. Once fully tested and proven, the aim is to extend the tool to other vulnerable groups, and regions worldwide.
"We started the embryo of this project with an enthusiastic group of engineering students and a medical Doctor some years ago. However, with the partnership of Thoughtworks we have managed to get a truly professional and dependable tool. Thoughtworks has actually become a keystone of the Blopup project."
Prof Pere J Riu
Departament d'Enginyeria Electrònica
Centre de Recerca Enginyeria Biomèdica CREB
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya