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Carolina Piedade

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While striving to improve better patient outcome, five undergraduate bioengineers develop a solution for the treatment of cystic fibrosis

Interested in the issue of poor patient compliance, Kevin Bui, Justo Caballero, Elvis Ikwa, Allison Mateo, and Shivani Torres became intrigued with the treatment of cystic fibrosis (CF) and decided to further investigate healthcare challenges in this space.

Sword Health, the Portuguese unicorn revolutionizing the approach to MSK disorders

Virgilio Bento's brother had to go to Cuba 20 years ago to receive cheap physiotherapy as he recovered from a life-threatening car crash back home in Portugal. This meant multiple trips back and forth to a different country, leaving behind the comfort of his home and his routine. This presented new and challenging struggles to his brother, as affordable therapy meant a lot of adaptability capacity,

These struggles of his brother would inspire innovation by Vergilio.

Metaphase, a story about a child who's dad has super powers

Ollie, was born with Down Syndrome.

When Reece, his dad, was young, he adored spending time looking at comic books, with larger-than-life superheroes. Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of stories out there that featured a hero with Down syndrome for his son to look up to, and that bothered him tremendously. "I wanted Ollie to see that people with Down syndrome could be superheroes too," he says, and this is how he decided to write a comic book of his own!

The power of fatherly love leads to wheelchair innovation

Barry Dean was concerned about the lack of safety features in powered wheelchairs after a friend’s mother tipped her chair over a ramp, cut her face and broke multiple of her bones. All he could think about was his 19-year-old daughter Katherine who has cerebral palsy and has been in a wheelchair all her life due to having her spine fused with two and a half dozen screws which worried him that if she fell, the trauma could be horrible.

Mum invents a new way to secure her kid

Natalie always wondered what would happen if she was in an accident with her daughter in the car and was unable to let the doctors know that her daughter could not have a MRI due to having a cochlear implant. This innovative mother shared this worry on her website, Personalized by Nat, just to find many other parents of children with special needs have the same exact fear. There is no better advocate for a child's needs than their parents, but when this link is missing, there is a need for the information to be conveyed in the best possible way.

Teen creates an app to help with socialization for his brother

His inspiration comes from his older brother Christian, who has Down syndrome.

When Johnny Ciocca and his family moved to Southwest Florida from New Jersey, Christian was no longer part of a thriving social community that the whole family could enjoy, due to being in a different place, far from their established network.

This spurred the family to launch a Fantastic Friends chapter, a process that kicked off in November. As word about the monthly social events has spread, so has the app work being done by Johnny.

Using AI to allow blind people to find familiar faces

When Martin Grayson and Ed Cutrell followed a group of athletes and spectators with varying levels of vision on a trip from the United Kingdom to the 2016 for the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, they began to pick up on clues that, even though there were a number of these athletes that could not see, an enriched understanding of social context was instilled on them, but unfortunately they could not seek the social cues necessary to perform this social interaction in the best way.

New technology to track health status may allow people facing cystic fibrosis a different way of treatment

As the parents of a teenager with Cystic Fibrosis, David and Kirsty Hill know what managing their younger son’s disease involves, with regiments of medications and nebulizers, the yearly trips to the hospital, the frequent interruptions to school and work, the dread and worry each time George developed a cough. With many nights spent by their son's side, worrying about his state and the damage that this progressive genetic disease does to the lungs and digestive system, they began to think, how could they do more?

Teen invents a better test for the diagnosis of Pancreatic cancer.

In 2011, Jack Andraka’s uncle died of pancreatic cancer.

Oppioo- An app revolutionizing exercise for cancer patients

At some point in our lifetime, one-third of us will develop cancer.

Cancer is a disease which affects both the person directly and everyone close to them, which motivated Eva Dieker, after having cancer herself, to focus on life quality of patients and not only medical care.

Amethyst Care- The supporting voice technology for patients with mobility related diseases

When Rebecca was caring for both her parents, she realized that even if there were multiple options to structure and assist both caregivers and patients, when looking at their practicability, they weren't user-friendly and for patients with reduced mobility, it was almost impossible to use them. This stemmed from the fact that when looking at medication delivery, activity reporting, or event reminder input into the software, they couldn't perform it due to the lack of fine and gross motor skills.

Atlantick, the power of a mother's intuition for a tick bite

When Darian, Lisa Wallet's son, suddenly became unable to move his legs without any severe pain, every alarm bell in her head went off! She took him to every doctor in town, but no one could tell her what it was that caused this sudden loss of movement. The paralysis lasted for months, and Darian was forced to use a walker to move around.

Brother develops a new device for her sister's cochlear implants

Raquel was born without the ability to hear and received cochlear implants where a surgically implanted device and a speech processor worn behind the ear to hold the batteries and microphone. Cochlear implant systems enable children to hear more sounds including soft, high-pitched sounds important to understanding spoken language.

Summed- Breast cancer survivor decodes diagnosis for every patient.

When Larisa Aragon Castro was first diagnosed with breast cancer, she was fooled with a diagnosis that was so incredibly worrying that she couldn't listen to anything else the doctors were saying. After the dust settled she was left with multiple pages of information regarding her diagnosis, the prognosis of her disease, and the next steps in her treatment. This overflow of information left her disorientated, not knowing what to tackle first and who to ask in order to better understand the overall picture.

Brother develops an app completely free of charge for non-verbal communication.

The Calder family have a nonverbal 14-year-old daughter named Della with a rare genetic condition called Bainbridge-Ropers Syndrome and a son,16-year-old brother Archer, who was shocked at the prices for the apps while scrolling through the app store, in order to find one to help his sister better communicate. These type of apps are far too expensive for this family, since as many others with individuals who have conditions that make it difficult or impossible for them to communicate verbally, treatment can become astronomically expensive, which exhausts their funds.

Mum comes up with socks for sensory play

Abbie Boudreau wondered why her son was always ripping off his socks when he was a baby. Then it hit her! He was trying to play with his toes! This is a type of play that activates and stimulates a child's senses, which is beneficial in several ways for children with autism in sensory activities is beneficial in several ways as it can help with stimulating the brain, creating neural pathways and improving sensory processing systems.

This was the necessary push for Abbie to come up with Sockabu , a sensory-friendly socks that offer the very best traction for kids of all ages!

Dad Invents Sleep Device for daughter with Narcolepsy

When his daughter, Jessica, a 17-year-old senior in high school, began having a difficult time staying awake in class her dad, Michael Larson, took her to a number of doctors trying to find out what she had. And after many trips to the hospital, she was diagnosed with narcolepsy - a neurological disorder that can send a brain signal for a person to fall asleep at any given time, against their will.

Motus- Daughter creates an app to help her dad with rehabilitation after the stroke

When one morning Emina's father had a severe stroke, she was devastated and didn't understand what were it's consequences. The doctors prognoses were not optimistic, and they said either he would pass away or stay forever in vegetative state. He spent the next five months in various hospitals and rehabilitation centers until the pandemic struck when he had to come home.

Emina and her family didn't understand complicated medical terminology and had a really tough time caring for her father since they couldn't understand what he wanted and then he would have an emotional outburst.

Glooma- a glove for early detection of breast cancer

When a cousin of Francisco Nogueira detected a lump in her chest, she disregarded it's importance, not talking about it to anyone, and as time went by, she became increasingly worried about it . Four months later, she went to the doctor and, as the tumor was diagnosed malignant, they had to remove the breast, which was a very difficult process.

Mom develops an app that offers friendship and support to the caregiver at every stage of the journey.

When Jessica Barker's five-year-old daughter was diagnosed with a rare congenital heart disease (hypoplastic left heart syndrome), she felt that raising a child with additional needs made her feel "isolated", since she struggled to find people who understood what her and her family were going through.

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