Start-ups support modern ageing
Team Altrue with Silver Lining (from left): Benjamin, Eugene and Victoria
A soiled-diaper alert system and coffee-maker-esque pill dispenser were ideas that snagged Team Altrue and Team Pillpresso the title of inaugural top co-recipients of $50,000 seed-funding each and follow-on mentorship from Modern Aging Singapore. The two teams, featuring several people with an NUS connection, were chosen from nearly 100 business concepts. The results were announced at the awards ceremony on 4 December.
"We are delighted to see participants of our first Modern Aging Singapore initiative bring their ideas to life and translate innovations and technologies into new solutions that address the well-being of seniors and their caregivers. This initiative highlighted the multidimensional needs of the silver sector and encouraged teams to take action. We hope all teams will carry on their entrepreneurial journeys, as they strive to make social impact on the ageing community in Singapore, the region and international markets, said Dr Lily Chan, CEO of NUS Enterprise, which co-organised the event with non-profit organisation ACCESS Health International.
The initiative, announced in April at InnovFest 2015, facilitates the creation of new businesses addressing the needs of the elderly. More than 500 Modern Aging Singapore participants, comprising entrepreneurs, healthcare professionals, students and researchers started out with an introductory workshop in August 2015. Over the last four months, they have benefited from an online learning portal, workshops by healthcare practitioners, industry talks and individual mentoring sessions, which helped develop their ideas into feasible solutions.
Altrue's smart diaper, Silver Lining, was developed by NUS Industrial Design graduate Benjamin Xue with Eugene Ng and Victoria Wang. If the diaper is soiled, a caregiver will receive an alert through a three-level hierarchy system. Initially, the device will send an alert to a caregiver's wrist band via wireless communication. If there is no response, a text message is sent to the caregiver's mobile phone. For the third level, reserved for emergencies, a call will be made to the caregiver, then to the next-of-kin and, finally, the authorities. Silver Lining can also be used to alert the caregiver when the patient needs to be rotated, which is necessary to prevent bed sores. The team currently has a prototype and plans to launch the product in 2017.
"Modern Aging has been an eye-opening experience for the team, which mainly has an engineering and industrial design background. The initiative showed us the route an entrepreneur has to take, in order to bring a product to market and this is definitely applicable to us in our future endeavours, said Benjamin.
Pillpresso's coffee-machine-sized device with 10 removable compartments aims to help senior citizens better manage their medication regimes. The team of four has three NUS-affiliated members: Jason Feng (Engineering), Chong Jia Loon (MD/PhD candidate at Duke-NUS Medical School) and Emily Low (Business). The machine will alert seniors on their medication time, upon which it will sort and dispense the pills at the touch of a button. Medication can be dispensed in advance into a pillbox for those who are on the go. It will also communicate through a mobile phone application, to notify caregivers or loved ones when the medication has been taken. Pillpresso will be refilled by a trained pharmacist, typically every three months, with the right medicine and medication schedules. The prototype currently sorts and dispenses a single pill. The team, which is now working on software to control the device, plans to complete development by the end of 2016.
See media coverage.
Pillpresso team members with their prototype (from left): Jason, Jia Loon, Emily and Jerome
