Mohammod Jobayer Chisti, from Bangladesh, was a medical intern when he saw three children die from pneumonia. Because of that, he was driven to produce a low-cost device to prevent babies from dying from pneumonia.

Hospitals use ventilators to help kids with pneumonia do breathe. But each of this machine is very expensive for the hospitals in Bangladesh.

GliControl allows the user to keep a daily log for diabetes, check a list of glucose records/carbohydrates/insulin, know daily where he should administer insulin and calculate the total carbohydrates and insulin doses. The app records the data, stores it, analyses it and sends it via e-mail, also producing reports that the user can export.

Hugo launched this app in 2013. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 2011, and at that time he wasn’t able to find an app that would him monitor diabetes.

Melissa was a nursing student when she got the idea for this organisation. A week after seeing Rita die, she found out that a hospital 20 minutes away from her had the required blood. So she thought of a solution so that this wouldn’t happen again.

Infiuss consists of an online blood band management system that allows hospitals with blood banks to connect with hospitals with blood banks by collecting blood and dispatching. The project uses simple technologies to help increase the blood supplement across hospitals in Cameroon. It’s the first blood bank managing system in Cameroon.

Christian designs different wheelchairs, to make users be able to perform sports. He founded his own company, Icon Wheelchairs. The Icon Explore, one of his models, is a motorised mix of motorbike, tricycle and wheelchair.

Phil became paraplegic after a diving accident when he just a teenager. He has limited mobility in his arms. He developed this solution because he used a ramp to get in his car for years. But one day he accidentally fell backwards three feet down and landed on his head. So he needed an alternative.

Krishnammal, S. Saravanamuthu’s wife, had surgery, in 2014, and had to stay in bed for three months during the recovery. Because of that, she had to depend on her family for all kind of tasks, including going to the bathroom.

It was very hard and embarrassing for the woman to ask for help. “It was very difficult for my wife to depend on people, something she has never done in her life. She preferred controlling herself over asking for people’s help. This was affecting her health, so I decided to make a bed with a provision of a toilet”, the husband explained.

The device is worn like a pair of normal glasses. This gadget can “see” and understand the shapes of the objects around the user. It works by using a 3D scanner and vibrating sensors to help the user get around on their own. So it’s more about giving the user information about distances rather than colours or shapes.

Ray Finucane, born in the USA, in 1944, is a retired mechanical engineer who struggles with Parkinson’s disease. He built an app, in 2015, to help him better match his medication with the onset of symptoms.

Parkinson’s disease consists of a condition when cells in the midbrain deteriorate and die. These cells produce dopamine, which is imperative for regular muscle movement. To make these dopamine levels normal, the patient takes a drug call levodopa (which is the standard treatment for this condition for more than 50 years).

After she recovered, the girl realised that there was almost no information about tick bites. So she decided that it was important to create awareness around this subject.

Lyme’s disease consists of an infectious disease caused by a bacterium named Borrelia spread by ticks. The symptoms can include a high temperature of 38C or above, muscle and joint pain and swelling or neurological symptoms, such as temporary paralysis of the facial muscles.

Attis, a project named after the Greek god of vegetation and in honour of her grandfather who liked to garden, consists of a wearable that helps people with Parkinson’s disease and tremors.

It consists of a wristband with cell phone buzzers connected to a battery and control module, which uses the principle of distraction.

Anne got this idea from the film The King’s Speech, which told the story about King George, who had a speech impairment and used music to get his mind off the stammering.

Because Claire was constantly having to do blood tests, Melanie created an innovative solution so that these tests could be performed more quickly and easily, anywhere, anytime. SmartMed Case is connected to a mobile app that allows the data to be recorded and sent to the doctor.

So, after five years of research and development, she came up with a hand-held prototype of a 3D-printing blood-testing device. It can perform multiple blood tests in real time when linked to a smartphone via the app. The innovation is being patented.

Carrie wanted to find a solution for her son’s motion sickness. So she sought advice from other people who suffer from this and from nausea caused by pregnancy and cancer treatment.

QuezzyBag consists of a disposable sickness bag that features a twist-and-seal system, with locks in the mess, so that there are no spills, smell and panic.

Morning routines - getting up, getting dressed, eat breakfast, etc., are always tough on Leo because of ADHD and also on Pierre.

When he was at the hospital, Brian was given a prosthetic leg. Before the accident, he was a sponsored competitive skier on the track for the USA Olympic team. The doctors told him he wouldn’t be able to ski again, not the way he was used to. And there was no solution on the market that would enable him to do sports the same way.

“I would never have wanted to go through that. But on the other hand, I wouldn’t be doing the work I am doing now. I never planned to do the work I am doing now. I didn’t even know any amputees (at the time), the inventor recalled.

The team created Smart Mat so that it can help diabetics to avoid foot ulcers that can lead to foot or leg amputation. The device works by measuring the temperature of a person’s feet and can be used in the comfortable surrounds of their own home.

Van got his left leg severed below the knee, in 1976, in a water-skiing accident. At the hospital, he was given a wood-and-rubber leg and sent home. Since he didn’t like this solution, Van became obsessed with creating a better prosthetic leg.

After doing some research, as a student at the Northwestern University Medical School Prosthetic-Orthotic Center, he realised that most prosthetics were designed within the cosmetic envelope — a prosthetic foot resembled the human foot. Which means that there was no energy to propel a leg.

After Anang helped a blind woman cross the street, he tried to find a solution to this problem. He realised that visually impaired people can sense objects in their way with their traditional cane. However, this device can’t really help when the user is trying to cross the road.

So he started doing some research, looking for some method like the bats have, to help them identify immediate danger. Since they’re blind, they rely on echolocation (sound waves are reflected from the surface of the opposite object) to identify and dodge from hurdles.

Omar first contacted with visually impaired people when he was a child. He visited an orphanage with his father, in India, and there he saw how difficult social independence can be for the visually impaired.

“In India, they don’t really have the infrastructure to help these kids go through their daily lives. I saw what a struggle it was for them, especially compared to the sighted kids,” he explained.

David grew up in Sierra Leone, during the 90s, where he saw many people - including family members and friends - lost their limbs during the civil war.

In 1998, Arunachalam had just married his wife Shanthi. One day he noticed she was hiding something from him - rags, “nasty cloths”, she used as sanitary pads.
"I will be honest. I would not even use it to clean my scooter", the man confessed. When he asked his wife why she didn’t use sanitary pads, she said that if she were to buy them, she wouldn’t be able to afford to buy food.