Sanandem

Supporting open research towards medicine equality

⚠️ CRITICAL MEDICAL DISCLAIMER

THIS PLATFORM IS EXCLUSIVELY FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES AND SHOULD NOT BE USED AS MEDICAL ADVICE IN ANY CASE.

• Always consult qualified health professionals for medical decisions
• Never use this data to self-diagnose or modify your treatment
• This is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment
• In case of medical emergency, contact your doctor or emergency services immediately

The data provided here is crowdsourced, anonymized, and intended solely for research into medication effects and disparities.

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Overview

Sanandem is an open-source web platform dedicated to advancing equality in medicine by collecting, visualizing, and sharing anonymized data about medication effects and side effects across diverse populations.

The Problem

Historically, medical research has suffered from systemic biases:

• Clinical trials have disproportionately included male subjects
• Medication dosages are often standardized without considering biological diversity
• Side effects experienced by women and marginalized groups are frequently understudied
• There is a significant gap in understanding how medications affect different demographics

Our Solution

Sanandem provides:

1. Anonymous Data Collection: Users can submit their experiences with medications, including both positive and negative effects
2. Advanced Visualization Tools: Interactive charts and graphs reveal patterns in how different populations experience medication effects
3. Open Research Platform: All anonymized data is available for researchers to study medication safety and efficacy across demographics
4. Community-Driven Insights: Empowering individuals to contribute to medical knowledge while maintaining complete privacy

Philosophy & Goals

Sanandem is grounded in feminist and social justice literature that highlights health disparities:

• Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez documents how data gaps affect women's health
• Research showing that women are more likely to experience adverse drug reactions than men
• Studies demonstrating that pain in women is often undertreated compared to men with similar conditions
• The historical exclusion of women from clinical trials until the 1990s
• Ongoing disparities in how different ethnic groups respond to medications

Our goals are to:

• Illuminate disparities in medication effects across gender, age, and other demographics
• Provide researchers with rich, anonymized datasets for studying medication safety
• Encourage movement toward more inclusive medical research and testing
• Empower individuals to share their experiences and contribute to scientific knowledge
• Advocate for equity in healthcare by making data-driven insights accessible

Features

Data Submission

• Submit anonymized reports about medication effects
• Include information about age, gender (optional), and severity of effects
• Contribute positive and negative experiences with medications
• No personal identifiable information (PII) is collected

Visualization Dashboard

• Interactive network graphs showing relationships between medications and side effects
• Statistical analysis by demographics
• Real-time data exploration tools
• Severity distribution charts
• Trend analysis over time

Research Tools

• Open access to anonymized datasets
• API for programmatic data access (coming soon)
• Export functionality for researchers
• Integration with existing pharmacovigilance frameworks

Technical Stack

• Frontend: SvelteKit 2.x with Svelte 5
• Visualization: D3.js, ECharts, LayerChart
• Database: PostgreSQL via Drizzle ORM
• Styling: Tailwind CSS 4
• Authentication: Oslo.js for secure session management
• Deployment: Node.js adapter for production

📚 Documentation

• QUICK-REFERENCE.md - Quick reference guide for common tasks
• SETUP.md - Detailed local development setup
• DEPLOYMENT.md - Production deployment guide
• technew.md - Complete deployment framework analysis
• CI-CD.md - CI/CD pipeline recommendations
• scripts/README.md - Helper scripts documentation

Getting Started

Quick Start (5 minutes)

# 1. Clone and install
git clone https://github.com/mitchlabeetch/Sanandem.git
cd Sanandem

# 2. Generate secrets
node scripts/generate-secrets.js

# 3. Set up environment
cp sanandem/.env.example sanandem/.env
cp sanadmin/.env.example sanadmin/.env
# Edit .env files with generated secrets

# 4. Set up database
export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://user:pass@localhost:5432/sanandem"
./scripts/setup-database.sh

# 5. Start development
cd sanandem && npm install && npm run dev  # Port 5173
cd sanadmin && npm install && npm run dev  # Port 5174

Visit http://localhost:5173 for the public app and http://localhost:5174 for admin dashboard.

📖 For detailed setup instructions, see SETUP.md

Project Structure

Sanandem/
├── sanandem/          # Main web application
│   ├── src/
│   │   ├── lib/       # Reusable components and utilities
│   │   ├── routes/    # SvelteKit routes/pages
│   │   └── stories/   # Storybook component stories
│   └── static/        # Static assets
├── sanadmin/          # Admin dashboard
└── docs/              # Additional documentation

Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Key areas where we need help:

• Adding more visualization types
• Improving data anonymization
• Translating the interface into more languages
• Writing documentation
• Testing and bug reports

Deployment

Ready to deploy to production? See our comprehensive deployment guides:

• DEPLOYMENT.md - Step-by-step production deployment
• technew.md - Complete framework analysis (hosting, database, costs)
• CI-CD.md - Continuous integration and deployment setup

Recommended Stack for Production:

• Hosting: Vercel (Frontend + Backend)
• Database: Supabase Pro (PostgreSQL)
• Cost: ~$65/month
• Alternative: Railway ($10-20/month for budget deployments)

See technew.md for detailed comparisons, benchmarks, and recommendations.

Privacy & Ethics

• No PII Collection: We do not collect names, email addresses, or any identifying information
• Data Anonymization: All submissions are anonymized before storage
• Open Data: Anonymized data is made available for legitimate research
• Informed Consent: Users are informed about how their data will be used
• Right to Research: We believe in open science and transparent research

License

This project is released under CC0 1.0 Universal - dedicated to the public domain.

Related Reading

To understand the context and importance of this work, we recommend:

Feminist & Social Justice Literature

• Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez - Data bias in a world designed for men
• Doing Harm by Maya Dusenbery - How bad medicine and lazy science leave women dismissed
• The Pain Gap by Anushay Hossain - How sexism affects women's health
• Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington - The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans

Academic Research

• "Sex and gender differences in pharmacology" (2020) - British Journal of Pharmacology
• "Adverse drug reactions: an analysis by sex and age" - Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety
• "Women's health and clinical trials" - Journal of Internal Medicine
• "Racial and ethnic disparities in medication safety" - American Journal of Public Health

Acknowledgments

This project stands on the shoulders of:

• Activists fighting for healthcare equity
• Researchers documenting medical disparities
• Open-source contributors who believe in accessible technology
• Every individual who shares their experience to advance medical knowledge

Contact & Support

• Issues: GitHub Issues
• Discussions: GitHub Discussions

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Remember: This platform is for research only. Always consult healthcare professionals for medical advice.