From HFEC to Pulmoro: Breathing New Futures

In just a few years, Dearborn’s own Henry Ford Early College alum Hamza Crichlow went from caring for patients at the bedside to building Pulmoro, a clinical decision-support app helping healthcare workers around the world manage complex respiratory cases. His journey is a reminder that when public education, community support, and tech justice line up, young people from places like Dearborn can quite literally help others breathe easier.

---

Hamza Crichlow’s story starts in familiar hallways.

A 2018 graduate of Henry Ford Early College (HFEC) in Dearborn, he came up through one of the district’s signature “early middle college” health pathways, where students earn both a high school diploma and a health-care related associate degree at no cost to their families.[8]High Schools+3Spring 2019, Volume 10 – Issue 1+3The First Bell+3

From there, he moved into Respiratory Therapy at Henry Ford College and into frontline work as a respiratory therapist in Metro Detroit.[9]Facebook That meant long nights in ICUs and emergency rooms, including the years when COVID-19 made “shortness of breath” one of the most terrifying phrases in medicine.

Instead of just surviving that pressure, Hamza did what so many Dearborn and Detroit kids do when the system shows its cracks: he tried to fix it.

The result is Pulmoro, a new app on the Apple App Store designed to help healthcare workers manage patients with respiratory conditions, especially those on mechanical ventilation.[1][2][3]App Store+2GitHub+2

And yes, HFEC family: you get to brag about this one.

---

What Pulmoro actually does

According to its official listing on the Apple App Store, Pulmoro is a clinical decision support app built for healthcare professionals managing respiratory conditions, especially those requiring mechanical ventilation.[1]App Store

At its core, Pulmoro:

• Interprets arterial blood gas (ABG) values in real time and pairs them with integrated oxygenation analysis.[1][2][3]App Store+2GitHub+2
• Calculates key respiratory and ventilator parameters — tidal volume, compliance, oxygenation index, A-a gradient, anion gap, and more — using a full suite of calculators designed for ICU and emergency settings.[1][2][4]App Store+2GitHub+2
• Shows underlying formulas and reference ranges so clinicians can see how each value was derived, not just what the answer is.[1]App Store
• Includes educational case studies to help clinicians learn to apply these tools in real-world scenarios.[1][2]App Store+1

Pulmoro was developed by a practicing respiratory therapist who has worked in intensive care, emergency medicine, and ECMO (heart-lung) support, and who saw firsthand how messy and error-prone respiratory decision-making can be under pressure.[1][2][4][7]GitHub+3App Store+3GitHub+3

The app is also deliberately privacy-conscious: its App Store listing notes that the developer does not collect data from the app, and that calculations run locally on the device rather than being sent to a remote server.[1][2]App Store+1

Importantly, Pulmoro repeatedly emphasizes that it is not a replacement for clinical judgment — it’s meant to sit alongside physicians, nurses, and therapists, not above them.[1][2]App Store+1

---

---

From HFEC hallways to Apple’s world stage

To understand why this matters to Dearborn, you have to look at the pipeline.

Henry Ford Early College is a partnership between Dearborn Public Schools, Henry Ford College, and Henry Ford Health System that lets students spend five years earning both a high school diploma and an associate degree in a health-care field.[8]High Schools+3Spring 2019, Volume 10 – Issue 1+3The First Bell+3

The school has been recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education for its overall academic excellence, putting it among a small number of top-performing schools nationwide.[8]The First Bell

HFEC and Henry Ford College have become a quiet engine for health workers from Dearborn and across Wayne County — students who might not come from money, might be first-generation college students, but who end up in scrubs, in labs, in hospital corridors.

Hamza is one of those grads. He went on to spend about seven years in the medical field, most recently as a respiratory therapist, before stepping into a new space: the Apple Developer Academy in downtown Detroit.[4][5][6][7]GitHub+3Gilbert Family Foundation+3https://www.wilx.com+3

The Apple Developer Academy — a partnership between Michigan State University, Apple, and the Gilbert Family Foundation — offers a 10-month program in coding, design, marketing, AI, and app business, with a second-year Renaissance program for advanced learners.[3][4][5]Michigan State University+2Gilbert Family Foundation+2

It was launched in Detroit as part of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative, specifically to expand opportunities for communities of color and build tech careers that actually stay rooted in the city.[3][4][6]Michigan State University+2Gilbert Family Foundation+2

At that academy, learners are encouraged to build something deeply personal. Hamza’s choice was obvious: an app that could help respiratory clinicians like him reduce errors and treat patients more safely.[3][4][6]Michigan State University+2Gilbert Family Foundation+2

“The academy, it’s changing my life,” Hamza told local media when he graduated with his cohort.[5]https://www.wilx.com

He describes Pulmoro as a way to transform complex respiratory data into clear, actionable recommendations, including real-time ABG interpretation, calculators, and educational case studies aimed at reducing medical errors and improving patient outcomes.[3][6]Michigan State University+1

---

---

Why this matters for health justice

Whether you’re looking at Dearborn, Detroit, or Gaza, one thing is painfully consistent: respiratory health is political.

It’s shaped by:

• Air pollution and climate change
• Housing quality, workplace safety, and access to healthcare
• War, siege, and the routine use of tear gas and explosives against civilians

Those realities sit at the heart of the Green Party’s commitments to environmental justice, universal healthcare, and demilitarization. Tools like Pulmoro don’t solve those structural problems — but they can help clinicians navigate the complexity more safely, especially when patients are already up against stacked odds.

Clinical decision-support apps, when used carefully, can:

• Reduce calculation errors under stress
• Make advanced physiology more accessible to trainees and overworked staff
• Bring evidence-based protocols to smaller or under-resourced settings that can’t afford bespoke software

Pulmoro lives in that space: not trying to replace clinicians, but helping them keep track of ABGs, ventilator settings, and oxygenation targets in the chaos of modern healthcare.[1][2][3][4]Gilbert Family Foundation+3App Store+3GitHub+3

From a Dearborn-and-Green-Party lens, there’s something powerful about a tool built by a Black respiratory therapist from Detroit, trained through a public-school early college in Dearborn, now being used by clinicians anywhere an iPhone can load an app.

That’s what public investment plus tech literacy can look like when it’s pointed toward life, not profit.

---

Responsible tech, not tech worship

Let’s be clear: no one should treat a smartphone app — even a very good one — as an infallible oracle.

Pulmoro itself spells this out. The App Store description stresses that it is not a replacement for clinical judgment, but a resource to enhance it.[1][2]App Store+1

For clinicians and hospitals, using tools like this responsibly means:

• Treating the app as a second opinion calculator, not an autopilot
• Cross-checking recommended ranges and formulas with institutional protocols
• Being transparent with patients and teams about what tools are being used
• Paying attention to data privacy, even when an app says it does not collect personal data — including how devices themselves are managed in the health system

Pulmoro has some good baseline answers to those questions — on-device calculations, clear formulas, a focus on education — but the ethical responsibility still lives with the humans holding the device.[1][2][4]App Store+2GitHub+2

That’s actually very aligned with Dearborn’s long-running skepticism of both corporate power and opaque institutions: technology should be transparent, accountable, and in service to people, not the other way around.

---

Dearborn, this is your win too

When HFEC was named a National Blue Ribbon School, Dearborn Public Schools highlighted its belief that “with the right customized support and intervention, all students will and can succeed.”[8]The First Bell

Hamza’s journey — from HFEC classrooms to Henry Ford College, from respiratory therapy bedsides to Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference — is exactly that belief in motion.

This is what it looks like when:

• A public early college invests in health-career education
• A community college makes Respiratory Therapy accessible to local students
• A global tech company is pushed (by movements and by market realities) to invest in racial equity and local talent
• A kid from Detroit, with roots in Dearborn’s educational ecosystem, decides that fewer people should die from medical errors and builds something concrete about it

And tucked inside all of that is a quiet, stubborn Dearborn value: we take care of people, whether they’re seniors at Oakwood, kids in crisis, or families under bombardment half a world away.

Pulmoro is not a liberation tool on its own. But it’s part of a larger picture where communities like Dearborn insist that:

• Health data should empower workers, not just administrators
• Training should be free or affordable
• Innovation should come from those who actually know what a ventilator alarm sounds like at 3 a.m.

From a Green-oriented, pro-Palestine perspective, we can see this as one small example of tech being reclaimed for care instead of control, for solidarity instead of surveillance.

And from a Dearborn perspective, we can simply say:

Hamza, we’re proud of you.

To every HFEC, Henry Ford College, and Dearborn Public Schools student who sees themselves in this story: the path from your classroom to global impact is real. Someone from your halls just walked it.

---

How to find Pulmoro

Pulmoro is currently available on the Apple App Store as a medical app for healthcare professionals.[1][2]App Store+1

Patients curious about the app should talk with their respiratory therapist, nurse, or physician before assuming it applies to their situation. Clinicians interested in trying it should review their organization’s device and app policies and treat Pulmoro as a professional tool, not a consumer gadget.

---

Sources

[1] Apple App Store – Pulmoro listing, description of features, platform compatibility, and data-collection statement.App Store

[2] GitHub – “Pulmoro” repository and README describing the app as a clinical decision support tool created by a practicing respiratory therapist, with emphasis on bedside use and respiratory calculators.

[3] MSUToday – “MSU and Apple grow Detroit’s tech talent,” describing Pulmoro as a decision support app that analyzes ABG results and ventilator settings, and noting Hamza’s recognition in Apple’s Swift Student Challenge.Michigan State University

[4] Gilbert Family Foundation – “Apple Developer Academy celebrates its fourth graduating class,” including details on the Detroit academy, Hamza’s background as a respiratory therapist, and Pulmoro’s purpose.Gilbert Family Foundation

[5] WILX News 10 – “‘It’s changing my life:’ Apple Developer Academy students celebrate graduation,” quoting Hamza on medical errors and describing his goal in building the app.https://www.wilx.com

[6] AfroTech – “Detroit’s Apple Developer Academy Graduates Over 125 Students, Fueling Local Tech Innovation,” highlighting Hamza’s work on Pulmoro and his Swift Student Challenge win.AfroTech

[7] GitHub profile – “hamzacrichlow,” listing Hamza as an iOS developer, UI/UX designer, design mentor at the Apple Developer Academy, based in Detroit, and still working part-time as a respiratory therapist.GitHub

[8] Henry Ford Early College & Henry Ford College sources – program descriptions and recognition:

• Henry Ford Collegiate Academy / HFEC dual-enrollment information describing HFEC as a health-career early college partnership between HFC, Dearborn Public Schools, and Henry Ford Health System, where students earn both a diploma and an associate degree in five years.Spring 2019, Volume 10 – Issue 1+1
• Dearborn Public Schools “First Bell” article announcing Henry Ford Early College as a National Blue Ribbon School and explaining its health-focused early college model.The First Bell

[9] Facebook profile snippet – “Hamza Crichlow,” indicating that he studied Respiratory Therapy at Henry Ford College and lives in Detroit, Michigan.Facebook

---

Disclaimer

This article is provided for informational and community-storytelling purposes only. Nothing here should be taken as medical advice, clinical guidance, or an endorsement or guarantee of any app, product, or service mentioned. Healthcare decisions should always be made by qualified professionals based on full clinical evaluation, local protocols, and relevant regulations.

Dearborn Blog does not control, maintain, or verify third-party apps or websites referenced in this article and is not responsible for any outcomes arising from their use. All product names, app names, and trademarks belong to their respective owners.

For corrections, clarifications, or comments you would like reflected in this article, please email info@dearbornblog.com.