Feeling sick is hard.Explaining it in another language should not be.
Sickway is a synthetic prototype for students who find it hard to describe symptoms in English. Say how you feel in your own words, in English or Spanish, check what the clinic will see, and get prewritten instructions back in your language.
The screens are in English and Español. What you type is never translated.
Prototype workflow. Not medical advice. Do not enter real health information.
The clinician's laptop
Follow one sick day
Optional prompts in English or Spanish help the student say what feels wrong, when it started, and what the clinician should understand. Everyday words are enough, and “not sure” stays “not sure”.
Why language comes first
The barrier
A student can know exactly how they feel and still lack the English words for it, or not be sure the clinic understood. That is a communication gap, not a gap in intelligence or in knowing their own body.
What this prototype shows
Plain-language prompts in English and Spanish, a review the student controls, their own words kept beside the clinician's brief, and prewritten instructions in the language they chose.
What we hope, and have not measured
Fewer students staying silent because of language. This is a synthetic demo: no patients, no outcome data, and no evidence yet that it changes who gets care. Nothing a student types is translated, so a Spanish phrase reaches an English-reading clinician as Spanish.
What is real, and what is pretend
A solid outline means the demo really does it. A dashed outline means mock data. The same rule holds on every screen.
Really happens
- Intake the student reviews, with consent as its own separate tick
- Rules on the server that route the visit, not the model
- A brief that shows where every line came from
- A lock on manufacturer resources, enforced on the server, with an audit log
- A packet stored once and returned to the paired phone
Mock data
- The patient, the plan, and the coverage
- Prices, stock, and pharmacies
- Therapies and manufacturer resources
- The prepared demo case and its recording
Not built at all: translating what a student types, interpreter services, booking, prescribing, insurance checks, or anything involving a real patient.
Four promises the interface keeps
Unknown is never “no”
A skipped or unsure answer stays unknown on every screen and in the brief.
Consent is its own tick
It starts empty, nothing can tick it for you, and the server checks it again.
Dashed means mock
Every price, coverage, and stock value wears its label right beside it.
Your words stay your words
What you type reaches the clinician exactly as you wrote it, in your language. Nothing is translated or reworded for you.
Try it in four moves
Two devices, about three minutes. Tick each move as you go. The list stays on this screen and sends nothing.
What comes back
One packet, confirmed by the clinician: the brief, the mock option they chose, and instructions in the student's language.
Hover or tap the folder