A 12-year-old girl developed a computer program that prevents the dangerous reaction to drugs
A drug can help some people, but it can have a negative reaction in others. Until now there was no way for doctors to say how the drug would react in a specific person, but now thanks to a 12-year-old girl this is possible.
Sofia Tomov from Knoxville, Tennessee has created a computer program that could help doctors prevent a dangerous reaction to medication. She is one of the finalists of the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge 2016, a famous scientific competition for middle school students.
Tomov's algorithm can be used by doctors, while examining patients, to learn whether a particular patient is allergic to drugs as part of their routine medical care. The program is to identify any genetic mutations that could cause a dangerous or potentially fatal reaction to prescription drugs.
According to the latest data, adverse drug reactions are the fourth most common cause of death in the United States.
Sofia, whose ambition is to earn a PhD in computer science and start her own company, admits that she still has a lot of work before her program can be implemented.
“So far [the scientists] have not found a feasible solution, because the algorithms take far too long to run on a genome of length 6000000000», explains on A Mighty Girl’s Facebook Page.
“For patients in emergency situations, such as cardiac arrest, this is a huge risk to their health.”
This is not Sofia's first invention. She has already built a system that prevents discarded drugs from entering the water supply.
