UMM Students Win International Medals thanks to the CardioFriends Application

The UMM team who made the Cardiofriends application. (Photo: Istimewa)

The idea of ​​​​a rehabilitation application for heart disease patients, the University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM), brought home an international medal. Who won the bronze medal at the International Scientific Writing Competition with the theme Asean Innovative Science Environmental and Entrepreneur Fair (AISEEF) 2022, last Tuesday (05/02).

This event was initiated by the Indonesia Young Scientist Association (IYSA) in collaboration with the Faculty of Engineering, Diponegoro University, and carried out in a hybrid manner. In the competition, the application designed by the Faculty of Health Sciences (FIKES) students had to compete with 447 teams from 20 ASEAN countries, namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Singapore, USA, Philippines, Palestine, Thailand, Lebanon, Macau, Vietnam, Uni Arab Emirates, Iran, Tunisia, Macedonia, Korea, Taiwan and the Republic of Serbia.

One of the team members, Khoiroh Yeroh, explained that the idea of ​​making the CardioFriends application started from the team members' concerns about the rehabilitation of heart disease patients. Especially in times of a pandemic. Cardiac rehabilitation is one of the treatment interventions that can improve the quality of life of coronary heart patients.

"According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), there are more than 13,000 people with heart disease worldwide. Meanwhile, the provision of health services has been disrupted due to the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we provide solutions for handling coronary heart patients during the pandemic by using a mobile health-based system called CardioFriends," said the student from Malang.

Furthermore, Khoir, as she is familiarly known, explained that this application is designed to facilitate the treatment of heart disease patients at home. Until now, the development of the application has reached the prototype stage. "However, in the future, further research and trials are needed regarding the effectiveness of using applications in overcoming the challenges of solving non-communicable disease cases in the Covid-19 era," said the eldest of two children.

Besides Khoir, this team also has members Muhammad Dodik Prastiyo, Dinda Putri S, Fino Ardiansyah, and Risa Aprillia. On a different occasion, Dodik added that this application is limited to smartphones and is also integrated into smartwatches and websites. In addition, this application also has eight main features: education, medication adherence, stress management, body health, physical activity, health counseling, community support for heart disease, and measuring well-being.

"The integration of smartphones and smartwatches will facilitate daily control of patients' activities. Meanwhile, the website is used for access to large amounts of data. This application is also equipped with support for completing challenges, daily notifications, measuring knowledge, obesity levels, and also levels stressed," said the FIKES student.

Dodik said that with the various features and services in this application, it is hoped that patients will get maximum rehabilitation facilities. "I want this application to be able to provide real assistance and develop innovations related to existing features," he concluded. (apg/syi/wil)