Canadian student, Daniel Iluz first appeared on our website in April 2020 when he was a second year student. The Coronavirus Pandemic had just begun, and like so many other MSIH students, Daniel was doing his bit to help; he was part of a team that developed software to accelerate COVID-19 research trials.

Daniel is now in his fourth year and he’s still using his technical skills to solve medical problems wherever he sees the need. He recently completed his Global Health Clerkships and developed a solution to a recurring problem that doctors and patients encounter every day.

“It all started when I witnessed a physician with a patient who had a colonoscopy scheduled,” he explains. “The patient came to the clinic for instructions on how to prepare for the procedure.

I never realized how extensive the preparation is. There are several complicated details patients have to process to prepare themselves. At the time, the explanation sheet was only in Hebrew and this patient spoke only Arabic. We spent more than 20 minutes trying to explain what comes before what and what the patient has to do every hour. I was sure there was no way this patient would come prepared  –  I felt that she just did not understand what she had to do.

A few days later the patient appeared for the procedure – and of course, she wasn’t prepared and we had to reschedule. It was such a mess – for us, the doctors, and for the patient, and the poor woman had to go through the whole thing again.

I decided to use my programming skills to develop a mobile app that takes as an input the colonoscopy date and gives as an output a full schedule with specific hours every step the patient has to do.”

The next phase of Daniel’s app will be to add Arabic and other languages so that it will be accessible to all. He has no intention of commercializing the app as he considers it a public service to the patients in the hospital. He intends to make it available to the Gastroenterology Department at Soroka Hospital and anyone else who wishes to use it.