Founder & CEO of Get to Sleep Easy, Nikhil Autar, who survived Cancer during his teens has been listed as a finalist in the category of Young Community Achiever of the Year in the annual India Australia Business and Community Awards (IABCA) 2019.
Nikhil was diagnosed with Leukemia at just 17 and given a 10-20% chance of surviving. After going through rounds of chemo and two bone marrow transplants, Nikhil is cancer-free today.
He aspires to be a doctor and is currently studying medicine at the University of Western Sydney.
However, it was the tragic loss of his two friends to preventable complications like falls and pneumonia that led Nikhil to invent a ‘smart bed’.
“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.
Source: Supplied
Pressure sores or bedsores 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.
As a medical researcher, Mr Autar found hospital beds reduce the rates of falls by 30 percent 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 company, ‘Get To Sleep Easy’, was created in 2017, supported by University of New South Wales Founders program and has won the Australian Student Startup of the Year competition in 2018.
Source: Supplied
The Smart Inclining Bed is its pilot product, aiming to bridge the gap between home and healthcare.
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