Jeanie Chung hopes something small will spark a big change.
“I developed a test kit that’s all encompassed, convenient [and] discreet that particularly people who use recreational drugs can keep on hand in the case that they might need to test their drug,” Chung said.
Chung is the co-founder of TaeSun. She came up with the idea for the kit in 2021.
“I resorted back to my basic science background with the constant desire to help people and as part of our medical training is to help people,” Chung explained. “Keep people healthy.”
Chung said she’s been practicing medicine for the last 23 years but is donning a new hat as a drug testing product developer.
“There are things you have to consider [such as] size, type of plastic, amount of water, how much residue of the drug you need because you’re testing illicit drugs, they’re not quality controlled,” Chung said.
She isn’t working alone. Chung pitched her idea to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) and was selected to take part in its ‘substance use disorder start-up’ challenge.