Veracruz student develops medical assistant with AI and wins international award
Ángela Elena Olazarán Laureano, a student who developed a virtual medical assistant powered by artificial intelligence, won the Chegg.org Global Student Prize 2024, which is awarded to exceptional young people who have had a real impact on learning, the lives of their peers and society in general
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At 17 years old and originally from Papantla de Olarte, Veracruz, the student was selected from more than 11,000 candidates and applications from 176 countries. He received the award in New York during the week of the United Nations General Assembly.
In a telephone interview with The Daysaid that it was the health crisis caused by the pandemic that inspired her to create a project that would allow people in her region to have access to health services.
During the covid-19 contingency, Papantla experienced a critical situation. People in remote places far from a hospital saw their situation worsen due to travel times.
Olazarán Laureano, an information technology and digital business engineering student at the Universidad Anáhuac Veracruz, Xalapa campus, worked with local doctors to determine, under certain criteria, when people who live in remote areas or at great distances from a clinic need care. medical.
The biggest challenge was creating the symptoms, since it is very extensive and cannot be reduced to just a few. Also, it takes a long time to merge that manifestation with AI so that the diagnosis is true and correct.
Ixtlilton is a virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence, which can currently diagnose 21 diseases based on a series of questions.
The young award-winner hopes that the tool will be especially useful in marginalized communities, which suffer from a shortage of doctors and do not have access to the Internet, since once downloaded to a device such as a mobile phone or a computer, it does not require access to the network to work.
What we want to achieve is to make it easier for patients to check their symptoms before going to a doctor, to determine whether it is urgent for them to attend or not. This way, they will be able to save time and money.
Since 56 percent of Mexico’s rural population does not have access to the Internet, this tool could be very beneficial for those facing limited connectivity.
Following the presentation of Ixtlilton, the Papantla city council is working to connect Olazarán Laureano and the Ixtlilton team with local pharmacies and health centers that wish to encourage their patients to use the tool.
Before this recognition, the young woman had already won several medals in national and international robotics competitions. In 2023, international success came with two silver medals at the RoboRAVE World Championship international robotics competition, competing against countries such as China, Australia and Canada.
In early 2024, she and her Nakú Robotics team virtually participated in a conference on AI and space education held at NASA’s Houston Space Center.
From the Senate of the Republic, Olazarán Laureano has spoken about the importance of including careers related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the Mexican curriculum, along with the development of socio-emotional skills in young people.
You can fail, fail, make mistakes, but the best thing is to learn from them, overcome them, analyze our strengths, weaknesses, keep trying and never give up.
he said in a message to other students.
Olazarán Laureano plans to use the $100,000 from the Chegg.org Global Student Prize to create and install a STEM classroom in Veracruz.