“Patient Innovation (PI) launched the PI Awards with the objective of honoring all patients, caregivers and collaborators who have developed innovative solutions to cope with the challenges of their health condition, to help others they care about, or in some cases, people they don't even know.
Thank you for that. Warm congratulations to all those who participated.”

Who we are

The four winners of the 5^th PI Awards Watch the video!

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Francisco Nogueira and Frederico Stock

with Glooma, Sense Glove

Glooma’s story started when Francisco’s cousin detected a lump in her chest, and disregarded its importance, later diagnosed as a malignant tumor. That's when Francisco and Frederico co-founded SenseGlove a home and portable medical screening device that assists women in breast self-examination. This device is a glove that with the help of sensors it will detect and control abnormalities in the breast tissue contributing to the early detection of breast cancer, taking women earlier to the doctor preventing death or aggressive treatments.

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Konrad Zielinski

with Uhura Bionics

A couple years ago Konrad lost his larynx due to cancer and was unable to find a convenient solution to regain his natural voice back. So, he started the Uhura Bionics team, to help him design the relevant technology to restore the natural communication of laryngectomees with the use of smart interfaces. Their aesthetic artificial larynx and AI-capable voice amplifier are able to restore the quality and freedom of conversation, turning the robotic sound of the current artificial larynxes into a natural-sounding voice.

COLLABORATOR INNOVATION CATEGORY

Akshita Sachdeva and Bonny Dave

with Trestle Labs, Kibo

By combining their knowledge and interest to keep working with communities of visually impaired people, helping them to pursue their education Akshita Sachdeva and Bonny Dave co-founded Trestle Labs. Their first project was developing ‘Kibo’, a device to help the visually impaired access written content. What it does is make anything that is printed accessible to audio by digitalizing it, allowing visually impaired people to listen to any book.

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Adriana Mallozzi

with Puffin Innovation

Adriana Mallozzi was born with cerebral palsy and was first introduced to a power wheelchair, at age 9. Puffin Innovations team created a Bluetooth-connected device fit for Android phones, that people with disabilities can control with their mouth, allowing them greater access to computers and mobile phones. Puffin empowers people with disabilities to connect wirelessly to mobile devices, computers & anything smart.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Jaume Puig and Constanza Lucero

with Biel Glasses

Constanza, is a medical doctor, and Jaume, is an Electronics Engineer, and they are the parents of Biel, a child, born with low vision. Biel's parents combined their knowledge in different areas and started Biel Glasses. The glasses capture the user's visual field, and through a processor, an algorithm analyzes the information to return signals to the display module. Then the display module adapts the image to the residual vision of the patient, indicating obstacles and other elements through various graphic signals that the user is able to perceive.

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The four winners of the 4^th PI Awards

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Kavita Krishnaswamy

with Robotic Matress

Kavita (India-USA) suffers from spinal muscular atrophy. She came up with several assistive robotic devices that can help people with disabilities be more independent. One of Kavita’s prototype consists of a robotic mattress that features a number of air chambers that can be inflated or deflated using a web interface. This means the user can alternate pressure settings preventing pressure ulcers.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Taylor Moreland

with The Frog

Taylor (USA) has a son, Brody, who has spina bifida. He underwent several surgeries but his mobility didn’t improve. His family wasn’t able to find a device on the market to help the child. Due to this, they decided to build The Frog. It consists of a gadget on wheels that allows a child who is at least 6-months-old to use their arms to move. The Frog supports the baby’s weight with the help of large wheels placed near his hips.

COLLABORATOR INNOVATION CATEGORY

Wang Nana and Huang Shuang

with Armband Showing

Wang Nana and Huang Shuang (China) were students when they were working on gesture recognition based on images. They had one deaf friend who made them realize that it would be more effective to rely on EMG (electrodiagnostic medicine technique for evaluating and recording the electrical activity produced by skeletal muscles) rather than images. That led the team to develop Showing, an armband which is worn around the arm which is composed of eight EMG sensors and gyroscope.

COLLABORATOR INNOVATION CATEGORY

Bill Deimling, Bill Wood and Bill Sand

with May We Help

May We Help (USA) is a nonprofit organisation that develops gadgets to increase the autonomy level of disabled people. It all started when Bill Wood met a young lady who had cerebral palsy who asked Bill if he could come up with a better way to read her books. At the same time, Bill Deimling was creating adapting assistive devices for a family member who also struggled with physical disabilities. Then the two Bills met and decided to help each other. They were also joined with Bill Sand. Together they founded May We Help.

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The four winners of the 3^rd PI Awards Watch the video!

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Rita Basile

with Handiplat

Rita Basile (France) won the Patient Innovation Award in the Patient Innovator Category. Rita created Handiplat after losing the movement of an arm due to a work accident. She couldn’t bear the idea of being dependent on someone to eat and cook. As she was able to use her other arm, she decided to create a plastic tray that allows her to immobilize the food so that she can cut it without asking for someone’s help.

PATIENT SERIAL INNOVATION CATEGORY

Bodo Hoenen

with 3D printed robotic arm brace

Bodo Hoenen (USA) won the Patient Innovation award in the Caregiver Innovator Category. Bodo developed a robotic orthosis for his daughter’s arm, Lorelei, who suffers from acute flaccid myelitis, a neurologic disease that damaged her arm. Lorelei used the robotic orthosis to make physiotherapy so that she could regain mobility, and after a short period, she was able to grab light objects.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Lise Pape

with Path Finder

Lise Pape (Denmark) won the Patient Innovation Award in the Caregiver Category. Lise developed Path Finder inspired by her father who struggles with Parkinson’s disease. This disease is related to episodes of freezing of gait, which leads to the helpless fall of patients with this condition. Lise was afraid that her father would fall when his wife was not around, so she created a device that projects a light on the floor, helping understand what would be the next step.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Gérard Niyondiko

with Faso Soap

Gérard Niyondiko (Burkina Faso) won the Patient Innovator Award in the category Innovator from Developing Country with Faso Soap. Gérard saw six of his twelve siblings die of malaria, and he almost died because of this disease. Driven by the extreme poverty of his community and with the purpose of protecting them from the malaria mosquito, he created a soap made of ingredients extracted from local plants. The soap makes the mosquitos stay away for 6 hours, and is an affordable solution for all families in developing countries.

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Great stories must be told. Share them!

The seven winners of the 2^nd PI Awards Watch the video!

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Michael Seres

with OSTOM-I Alert

Michael won the PI Award in the Patient category. He was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. That is why he invented the Ostom-I Alert: a sensor-based device that can be attached to any ostomy bag and is able to send messages via Bluetooth to a mobile app to warn the patient when his bag is close to being full.

PATIENT SERIAL INNOVATION CATEGORY

Giesbert Nijhuis

with Laesieworks

Giesbert won the PI Award in the Patient Serial Innovator category. Giesbert is a tetraplegic who created his own website, LaesieWorks, where he shares several solutions he created that help him coping with challenges he faces daily due to his condition.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

David Day

with Cystic Fibrosis games

David won the PI Award in the Caregiver category. David Day’s daughter, Alicia, suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. David developed computer games which are played by using a device that connects breathing tubes to the computer, controlling characters and shapes on screen by exhaling at a certain pressure.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Doron Somer

with Angelsense

Doron won the PI Award in the Caregiver category. Doron’s son, Itamar, is autistic and suffered mistreatment at the hands of a professional caregiver. So Doron invented Angelsense, a personal GPS device designed specifically to keep special needs children monitored.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Kenneth Shinozuka

with SafeWander

Kenneth won the PI Award in the Caregiver category. To prevent his grandfather, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, to wander alone at night, Kenneth created SafeWander: A wearable sensor designed to send an alert to a caregiver whenever a patient gets out of bed.

COLLABORATOR INNOVATION CATEGORY

Pavel Kurbatsky

with Walking Talking Stick

Pavel won the PI Award in the Collaborator category. Having worked with disabled children, Pavel wanted to invent something to make their lives better. So he created a walking talking stick to help blind people navigate.

COLLABORATOR INNOVATION CATEGORY

Duncan Fitzsimons

with Morph™ Wheels

Duncan won the PI Award in the Collaborator category. Having created foldable wheels for his bicycle, a man in a wheelchair made him realized disabled people would also benefit from his innovation if Duncan adapted that concept to wheelchairs.

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Great stories must be told. Share them!

The six winners of the 1^st PI Awards Watch the video!

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Louis Plante

with The Frequencer™

Louis won the PI Award in the Patient category. Louis suffers from Cystic Fibrosis. He invented the Frequencer™, a device that produces sound waves, which helps cleaning the lungs, by creating low energy resonant vibrations (acoustics), reducing mucus viscosity, which allows the mucus flow increasing.

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Lisa Crites

with The Shower Shirt™

Lisa won the PI Award in the Patient Category. Lisa had a double mastectomy, and then she was told to not to wet the suture area. Because she wanted to shower normally, she invented a waterproof shirt - The Shower Shirt™.

PATIENT INNOVATION CATEGORY

Tal Golesworthy

with EXOVASC®

Tal won the PI award in the Patient Category. Being an engineer diagnosed with Marfan’s Syndrome, Tal realized he just had a “plumbing” problem”. So he designed the Exovasc, an external support for the aorta root.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Debby Elnatan

with Upsee™

Debby won the PI Award in the Caregiver Category. Debby’s son suffers from Cerebral Palsy. To include her son in the family activities, Debby created the Upsee, a harness that attaches the boy’s feet to Debby’s, so that they can walk together.

CAREGIVER INNOVATION CATEGORY

Joaquina Teixeira

with Helium Balloons

Joaquina won the PI Award in the Caregiver Category. Joaquina’s son, Gonçalo, suffers from Angelman Syndrome. The doctors said he would never walk. By seeing helium ballons, he tried to get up and reach them. Today he walks normally.

COLLABORATOR INNOVATION CATEGORY

Ivan Owen

with 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand

Ivan is an artist who posted a video on Youtube about a mechanical hand he created. He was contacted by a carpenter, who had lost some fingers, and who asked Ivan to help him design a prosthetic hand for him. Ivan accepted the challenge and he now makes 3D printing hands.

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Great stories must be told, share them!

Do you want to apply for the 5^th Patient Innovation Awards?

Post a Solution

The Challenge

Once you post and share a solution on Patient Innovation, you are eligible for that year's Patient Innovation Awards.

Patient

Patient

You are a patient and you have developed a solution to improve your health condition
Caregiver

Caregiver

You helped a loved one to improve his/her own health condition
Collaborator

Collaborator

You helped improving the condition of a person/group that was outside your circle of family and friends

Sponsors of PI Awards

These are entities that have agreed to work hard with us in providing a valuable way to honor patients, their caregivers and collaborators spread all around the world.

The four winners of the 5th PI Awards Watch the video!

Francisco Nogueira and Frederico Stock

with Glooma, Sense Glove

Konrad Zielinski

with Uhura Bionics

Akshita Sachdeva and Bonny Dave

with Trestle Labs, Kibo

Adriana Mallozzi

with Puffin Innovation

Jaume Puig and Constanza Lucero

with Biel Glasses

The four winners of the 4th PI Awards

Kavita Krishnaswamy

with Robotic Matress

Taylor Moreland

with The Frog

Wang Nana and Huang Shuang

with Armband Showing

Bill Deimling, Bill Wood and Bill Sand

with May We Help

The four winners of the 3rd PI Awards Watch the video!

Rita Basile

with Handiplat

Bodo Hoenen

with 3D printed robotic arm brace

Lise Pape

with Path Finder

Gérard Niyondiko

with Faso Soap

The seven winners of the 2nd PI Awards Watch the video!

Michael Seres

with OSTOM-I Alert

Giesbert Nijhuis

with Laesieworks

David Day

with Cystic Fibrosis games

Doron Somer

with Angelsense

Kenneth Shinozuka

with SafeWander

Pavel Kurbatsky

with Walking Talking Stick

Duncan Fitzsimons

with Morph™ Wheels

The six winners of the 1st PI Awards Watch the video!

Louis Plante

with The Frequencer™

Lisa Crites

with The Shower Shirt™

Tal Golesworthy

with EXOVASC®

Debby Elnatan

with Upsee™

Joaquina Teixeira

with Helium Balloons

Ivan Owen

with 3D Printed Prosthetic Hand

Do you want to apply for the 5th Patient Innovation Awards?

The Challenge

Patient

Caregiver

Collaborator

Sponsors

Sponsors of PI Awards

The four winners of the 5^th PI Awards Watch the video!

The four winners of the 4^th PI Awards

The four winners of the 3^rd PI Awards Watch the video!

The seven winners of the 2^nd PI Awards Watch the video!

The six winners of the 1^st PI Awards Watch the video!

Do you want to apply for the 5^th Patient Innovation Awards?