15-year-old Wellbands Inventor launches Crowdfund campaign

15-year-old Wellbands Inventor launches Crowdfunding campaign

Press release: Benjamin Bell, Wellbands Inventor

25 March 2015

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, andhe 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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Website: www.wellbands.co.nz

Twitter: @wellbandsNZ

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