15-year-old Wellbands Inventor launches Crowdfunding
campaign
What do you do when you have an idea and it just won’t go
away?
If you are 15-year-old Ben Bell, you launch a crowdfunding
campaign.
Ben thought of his idea back
in 2011, and has spent the last four years rethinking healthcare, and how a
hospital wristbands can enter the smart technology era.
Ben got lost when trying to find where his Dad was in
hospital. It turns out this is something
many people experience. “I want to solve
this problem, and I think I have a solution that fits the bill”, says Ben. “I have been working with local designers in
Wellington, and now I am at the stage of making a full working prototype of the
smart wristband”.
Ben certainly has done his homework. As well as talking to DHB’s all around the
country, he has met with the Health Alliance, and had several chats with the
Bio Commerce Centre (BCC), Grow Wellington, and Callaghan Innovation. “But they are not ready to fund me yet” Ben
says “because I have to come up with half of the funds, and my paper delivery
job won’t quite fund it”. In between
school, sport and his part-time job, Ben manages to fill all his spare time
working on Wellbands.
He takes inspiration and encouragement from his contact with
Sir Ray Avery, who has managed to deliver innovative healthcare solutions to
poor countries who need a cut-price version of expensive equipment. “Ray has always made the seemingly impossible
possible, and that is what I want to do” says Ben.
And after four years of hard work, Ben is
determined to see his project become a success.
Ben paints his vision for Wellbands by describing an impressive
line-up of features.
Wellbands will be able to help friends and family locate
their patient. Wellbands will provide
better identification of the patient, enable custom prints on the band, secure
entry into bedside cabinets so that valuables can be protected, real time
recording of medical and drug treatment, and be an on-wrist wallet for the
pharmacy, hospital café, and vending machines.
Ben thinks there are a lot of things Wellbands could help
with that would really improve healthcare – like making sure you hadn’t missed
out on lunch or dinner because you had moved wards; because those little things
matter a lot for patient comfort and wellbeing.
If you would like to help Ben, you can go to his Go Fund Me
page at
www.gofundme.com/wellbands,
or find out details of how to donate directly to his project on his website at www.wellbands.co.nz. Ben believes that everyone deserves better
healthcare, and he says “Just like we have proven with world-changing technology
companies Xero and Vend, it is up to the Kiwi’s to invent it”.
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