When Ashmita Kumar was eight years old, her grandfather suffered a stroke that prevented him from being able to walk or talk. Her grandfather did not recognize the signs of a potential stroke, such as a drooping face and slurred speech, so he did not seek medical attention. The stroke effects were severe to the point that he could not recognize his own family.
Then Kumar noticed half of her father’s face started to sag in 2021. While this did not end up being a stroke, Kumar started to brainstorm an idea about whether there was a way to detect stroke signs and seek medical help with the devices we already own.
This led Kumar (third-year undergraduate student at UC Berkeley) to launch Code Blue. Code Blue is a startup that uses cameras and microphones on smartphones, computers, and smart devices to alert users about early signs of a stroke. Plus, Code Blue can also also call for help.
Kumar pitched this idea at an innovation summit in 2023 and saw overwhelming interest from attendees. Many people approached her and her small group of supporters and developers and shared stories about loved ones who would have benefited from this kind of technology.
Over 795,000 people in the U.S. have a stroke each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And someone dies from a stroke every three minutes. However, patients who arrive at an emergency room within three hours of their first symptoms often experience fewer long-lasting disabilities 3 months after a stroke than those who receive delayed care.
Hospitals use diagnostic tools for detecting strokes, and some medical systems are leveraging AI to quickly evaluate CT scans to detect abnormalities in the brain. However, these do not solve the problem of getting people to recognize the signs in the first place.
Code Blue puts monitoring technology on the devices we use every day. And doctors can prescribe the tool for patients who may be at an elevated risk of stroke. This enables patients to activate the Code Blue program on their smartphones, computers or TVs. This program then analyzes their speech and facial images every 30 seconds and monitors changes, like slurred words or asymmetrical facial expressions.
On the back end of the app, the images and sounds are analyzed for patterns and then immediately deleted. To protect patient privacy, no images or speech data are stored. Just the patterns used to compare the data over time remain.
This program alerts users if signs of a stroke are detected. It can also notify emergency services that a patient may be suffering a stroke, ensuring that first responders know to transport the patient to a facility that has proper care teams and enhanced testing tools.
Kumar is collaborating with a team of doctors at UC San Francisco to pilot test the program with five patients. And she plans to soon grow the test participant size to about 100 patients. Her team is also seeking approvals from the FDA to allow the technology to be more widely adopted, similar to other consumer electronics like the Apple Watch that can detect heartbeat abnormalities.
Since her initial pitch in 2023, Kumar tapped a number of Berkeley programs to help entrepreneurial students launch companies and create real products out of their ideas. And she participated in contests at the campus’s Sutardja Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology and was the grand prize winner last year in the Blum Center’s Big Ideas Contest.
She also attended the National Science Foundation I-Corps boot camp, which helps university scientists and engineers commercialize innovations, and she’s been a part of the UC Launchathon at Berkeley Haas and Berkeley’s SkyDeck Pad-13 incubator.
Today Kumar is competing against entrepreneurs from universities across the country for the Atlantic Coast Conference InVenture Prize. The participants will pitch their ideas to a live audience and a panel of judges at the University of Notre Dame, vying for $30,000 in prizes and bragging rights as the ACC InVenture Prize winner.
KEY QUOTES:
“Everybody has devices now, especially after COVID, and telehealth has taken off. So why don’t we use that as a way to make sure that people, when they experience a stroke, can use those existing devices to get treatment when they need it?”
“We’ve been a part of a lot of Berkeley’s startup ecosystem. I honestly think if I hadn’t gone to Berkeley, none of this would have happened.”
- Ashmita Kumar, who’s studying electrical engineering and computer science
“Ashmita’s work is a great example of Berkeley students using technology and innovation for the greater good. Code Blue is also an example of a team that’s benefited from many of UC Berkeley’s entrepreneurship-supporting resources.”
- Darren Cooke, UC Berkeley’s interim chief innovation and entrepreneurship officer
