Med Debt VT
Problem Statement
Medical debt is an issue impacting Vermonters in many ways such as obtaining quality healthcare, accessing medications, and stress and anxiety over hospital bills. To raise awareness about Medical Debt in Vermont, Vermont Legal Aid (VLA) conceived the idea of a web application to collect real stories and share them online.
The goal is to bring attention on this issue to legislators as the legislative session approaches, and to keep a pulse on the continuing impacts of medical debt (especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Project Summary
Vermont Legal Aid sought the assistance of Burlington Code Academy (BCA) to provide a team of web developers who could bring their vision to life.
The concept for the Medical Debt in Vermont site (http://www.vtmedicaldebt.org/) is to provide a clear visual interface for users to access the stories of medical debt housed in a Mongo DB database. This was accomplished with a large, clickable React-Leaflet map featuring Vermont counties providing an intuitive way to navigate the stories.
In addition, users can also access the stories via a drop-down menu in the top navigation bar. The site features clean, modern design and to create visual consistency and accessibility, Material User Interface (MUI) was used for the top navigation bar and drop-downs in the site.
The project is now live and promoted on social media to bring awareness to this critical issue in the state of Vermont.
Project Details:
Client: VT Legal Aid
Partner: Eric Schultheis (VT Legal Aid)
Project Manager: Katrina Meyers
Tech Leads: Terri Isidro (BCA) & Paul Dodson (BCA)