Pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, form when a patient experiences high pressure in localized areas for an extended period of time. Although completely preventable, pressure ulcers are responsible for 30,000 deaths a year worldwide, and the total annual costs associated with only the treatment of pressure ulcers are nearing $12 billion in the US alone.
pasCARE is an innovative medical device startup based around a patient monitoring platform technology that tracks the formation and development of pressure ulcers in real time and notifies caregivers via their mobile device when a patient is at risk of developing an ulcer and needs immediate attention.
pasCARE spun out of IDEA Hacks during the weekend of Jan. 15-17, 2016. The theme was Internet of Things, so our team of 5 engineers, mostly bioengineers, decided to make a smart shirt. Our final product used the Arduino Zero as a microntoller and the TI SimpleLink WiFi CC3200 Launchpad for Wi-Fi connectivity. We were able to hook up a shirt with pressure sensors and notified doctors and nurses via companion iOS app when the the sensors experienced pressure that exceeded the threshold over a period of time. Out of around 30 teams that participated, we placed top 6.
After the hackathon, we were made aware of an opportunity to transform our prototype into a product: the Lowell Milken Institute-Sandler Prize for New Entrepreneurs, a business plan competition for startup businesses. On April 12, 2016, we presented our pitch to six judges and were chosen as the recipients of the $100,000 prize.
This was my first startup experience, and I learned a lot about building business cases, iterating through designs, gathering competitive intelligence, and other intriguing facets of starting your own company.