A young cancer survivor, who spent hours on a bed and has lost friends to falls and pressure sores, has invented a ‘smart bed’ to help patients sleep easy.
Sydney-based 25-year-old Nikhil Autar founded the startup, Get To Sleep Easy, after he experienced pressure sores himself and lost a friend to a fall.
“Pressure sores cost Australia $1.6 billion annually, they can take years to heal and I’ve had a few myself,” Mr Autar told SBS Hindi.
Pressure sores or bed sores are injuries to the skin and underlying tissue resulting from prolonged pressure on the skin. People most at risk are those with a condition that limits their ability to change positions.
“I lost a couple of friends to preventable incidences that should never happen. One was 28 when she fell in the bathroom and nobody knew for over 20 hours,” he said.
Nikhil has spent considerable time in hospital beds and at home while fighting cancer after he was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of 17.
“I was given a 10 per cent chance of surviving. Life-saving bone marrow treatment cured me but left lasting impacts on my immune system, lungs, liver and skin,” he says.
Today, he is cancer-free but is striving to make life easier for other patients who spend considerable time in bed.
As a medical researcher, Mr Autar found hospital beds reduce the rates of falls by 30 per cent when compared to facilities equipped with generic beds.
“When I looked up the literature I saw that facilities with hospital beds had lower rates of falls because they help people sit up and get up – that’s how the Smart Inclining Beds came to be.
“We have invented the Smart Inclining Bed, a device that sits on top of your bed and doesn’t require a frame. It uses a combination of motors and air inflation to lift you up.
“But instead of thousands, the price point is a tenth of a hospital bed,” he says.
The Smart Inclining Bed is its pilot product, aiming to bridge the gap between home and healthcare.
Source: Supplied
“We are conducting trials in Australia and pursuing trials in India, where the rate of falls of patients is even higher than Australia,” he says.
The accompanying ‘Centred Around You’ app uses proprietary technology to map patients’ movements, breathing patterns and heartbeat.
“The app can alert nurses, as well as loved ones, that someone is at risk of a pressure sore, if they’ve fallen or if they’ve stopped breathing,” he said.
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Source: Supplied
Mr Autar, who runs this social enterprise with UNSW Business School student Sachin Kinger, is currently working towards raising funds.
