Our Story

(From left) Ruby, Ahilya, Sid, Om, Ayaan

Despite affecting millions of people worldwide— numbers that are believed to be largely underestimated— underdiagnosis remains a significant concern. This matter, disproportionately affecting women, becomes even more personal to our group, as one of our group members, Ahilya has a close family member with this disease. She watched as her Aunt, one of the most important role models in her life, underwent this complicated, expensive, and lengthy diagnostic process all while dealing with chronic pain in nearly all regions of her body. Not just the physical toll of the disease, but the emotional drainage of the diagnosis process left a Watching her aunt undergo this difficult process resulted in her passion for doing something to aid others going through the diagnostic process, she knew that she wanted to contribute in some way to mitigate this issue. 

At our school, the Downingtown STEM Academy, all five of our group members took pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) Biology in our sophomore year. Despite going into this class with varying degrees of passion about biology, we all came out of it with a newfound interest and respect for the field of research; we had fostered genuine curiosity and passion. In our class, specifically, we covered external topics of diseases with diagnostic difficulties as a part of an independent research assignment, one of such topics being fibromyalgia. This exploratory project left a lasting impression on us, showing us the interconnection between school biology and real world, deeply human, problems.

With close friends Ahilya, Ruby, Ayaan, Om, and Sid, the Fibrometer group was born. With our unique strengths focused in diverse fields of business, machine learning, and medicine, we collaborated effectively together with one clear goal in mind. Each of us individually contributed our unique talents while collaborating to enhance each others. Despite some challenges and hurdles throughout testing stages, we effectively prioritized using objective biomarkers to non-invasively and accurately diagnose Fibromyalgia over classical subjective methods. Our innovative approach to Fibromyalgia diagnosis was made with not just patient, but family members, friends, and loved ones like Ahilya’s aunt in mind.