姐妹合做新APP

Twin sisters Hadley and Delaney Robertson created the BraceTrack app to help people who use scoliosis braces.

孪生姐妹花哈德利和德兰妮·罗伯森一起创立了“支架追踪”APP啦帮助那些使用脊椎侧弯矫正支架的人们。

The twins, 15, from Miami were both diagnosed with scoliosis at age 12 during their annual checkup in January 2018.

这对来自迈阿密的15岁双胞胎在2018年一月的年度体检中均查出患有脊柱侧弯，当时她们才12岁。

According to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, scoliosis affects 2-3% of the population, or an estimated 6 to 9 million people, in the United States.

据美国神经外科协会数据，美国有2-3%的人口患有脊柱侧弯，约六到九百万人。

It can develop as early as infancy but is typically onset between 10 and 15 years old.

这种病婴儿时期就可能发病，不过一般是发病年龄是10到15岁期间。

While Delaney's scoliosis didn't require treatment, Hadley was diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis and the curve of her spine was greater than 20 degrees.

虽然德兰妮的脊柱侧凸不需要治疗，但哈德利被诊断为特发性脊柱侧凸，她的脊柱弯曲度大于20度。

Doctors prescribed her a back brace that needed to be worn for 18 hours a day to stop the progression, Hadley told "Good Morning America."

哈德利在接受《早安美国》采访时表示，医生给她定制了一个背部支架，每天需要佩戴18个小时才能阻止病情恶化。

"Getting used to wearing a brace can be a little daunting," Hadley, who was able to stop bracing in June 2020, said.

“适应支架的过程还是很忐忑的，”哈德利说道，她于2020年6月开始撤除了支架。

"It's made of a hard plastic so it can be hot to walk around in on a daily basis and it makes it a little bit difficult to do activities like sports."

“支架是用硬质塑料做的，所以日常行走时会感觉很热，同时戴着它做运动也很困难。”

Fortunately, if Hadley needed to take off her brace for any reason, she could wear it for extra hours another day to make up for lost time.

幸运的是，如果哈德利因任何原因需要取下支架，她可以下一天再多戴几个小时，以弥补失去的时间。

The true difficulty was in keeping track of not just those banked hours, but also her daily use.

真正的困难就在于不仅仅要记录下缺失的几个小时，同时还要记录平时日常佩戴的时间。

"One thing about that I found really difficult was figuring out how to track the time that I wore it," Hadley said.

“我感觉很困难的一件事就是如何记录好我戴支架的时间，”哈德利说道。

"I tried using a lot of different things. I think we tried using a notepad, a whiteboard, and I even tried looking for an app on the app store to see if there was something that could help me track that but there really wasn't one so we decided to develop one ourselves."

“我试着用了几种不同的方法。回想起来， 我用过笔记本，白板，甚至想去APP商店里寻找一款APP来看是否可以帮我记录，但是没有找到，所以我们打算自己研发一个。”

That same year, the twins began to research more about scoliosis and app development to figure out what functions would best serve people with the condition.

就从那年开始，这对双胞胎开始进行脊柱侧弯和APP研发方面的调研，来看看什么样的功能能够最好地服务于有她们类似病情的人们。

While the girls were previously interested in STEM, they had no prior experience with building an app.

虽然女孩们之前对科学，技术，工程和数学类学科感兴趣，但她们之前没有开发应用程序的经验。

"I think one common misconception around this sort of thing is that you have to know everything about an idea to get into it," Delaney said.

“我想关于这方面的一个常见误区就是很多人认为你必须了解到APP开发的所有方方面面才能开展工作，”德兰妮说道。

"We really didn't know everything about app development, or scoliosis even. We just jumped in and started doing a lot of research."

“而我们并不了解APP开发以及脊柱侧弯的所有事情。我们就直接进入，开始做起了研究。”

They then worked with an app developer to make sure they had everything they needed to get the app into app stores across all devices, and it officially launched in May 2019.

她们后来开始跟一个APP研发员合作，来确保她们能够让这个APP进入各种类型的设备的APP商店，它于2019年五月正式启动。

"Since BraceTrack is a medical app, it was really important that we were HIPAA compliant and that we had all of those things in order," Delaney said.

德兰妮说:“由于支架追踪是一款医疗应用，我们就必须符合健康保险流通与责任法案标准，我们必须准备好所有相关的手续，”

"So we found an app developer that would be able to help us actualize all of the vision, all of the designs that we had."

“所以我们就找了一名APP开发员来帮助我们实现所有的愿望，把我们期望的设计做出来。”

BraceTrack has several functions to assist users.

支架追踪这款APP有几个功能可以服务用户。

It can keep track of how long a person wears their brace each day as well as how many banked hours they have, which can be applied to other days where they've needed to take their brace off.

它可以追踪用户每天戴了多长时间的支架，并计算出有多少多余时长可以用于弥补没有戴护具的日子。

It even keeps a log of past history of brace use and creates average trend data based off that.

它甚至会记录下过去使用支架的历史，并据此创建平均趋势数据。

Users also have the ability to create a report with all of the data the app collects, which they can save and send to a doctor, relative, or the like.

用户还可以用该应用收集的所有数据创建一份报告，他们可以保存并发送给医生、亲戚或类似的人。

"These reports make it more easy to interpret and understand where you could be wearing your brace more or where you're wearing it a lot," Delaney said.

德兰妮说:“这些报告让人们更容易解读和理解你在什么地方应该更多地佩戴护具，以及目前在什么地方经常佩戴护具。”

The app has been downloaded over 1,000 times, the sisters said, and had around 500 active users last week.

姐妹俩说，这款应用已经被下载了1000多次，上周有大约500名活跃用户。

Currently, BraceTrack has a 4.9 out of 5-star rating on Apple's App Store with a myriad of positive reviews.

目前，支架追踪在苹果App商店的评分为4.9分(满分5星)，并获得了大量正面评价。