GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Calvin University held Shark Tank for college kids Wednesday night. Twelve students were given just two minutes to present their ideas in hopes of winning a cash prize to make their dream a reality.
One student in particular has been dreaming for quite awhile — that student is senior Daniel John.
John explained that his childhood living in Nepal has inspired his future career.
“Growing up there made me interested in medicine, and also made me see the immense need around the world, especially in global health, for medicine and for engineering solutions that are low cost and easy to use,” John said.
John's low cost idea is called BiliRoo, which seeks to fight neonatal jaundice.
“Six million infants lack access to the photo therapy equipment they need to treat their jaundice," John said. "And this happens every year.”
The lack of photo therapy comes from a lack of electricity, and a lot of expense. John knows about this firsthand. “Growing up in Nepal, we had sporadic electricity," John said. "Sometimes we wouldn't have electricity for half the day.”
Now, John has a low cost solution. “We’re using the sun instead of light from machines,” John said. "The mother holds the baby in a sling, and then there's filters that filter the sunlight through."
John says the slings are designed for skin to skin contact. “On the front there's filters that filter out the harmful radiation while allowing for just that blue light, which is blue UV light to pass through it, which is safe for the baby, and treats the jaundice,” John said.
As he get's ready to graduate and launch BiliRoo into the world, John has one thing to say to his younger self.
“I would tell him to dream big and also to think creatively about solutions, because sometimes there's a simpler solution out there that you just have to look for, and then it can make a huge impact, especially in limited resource settings,” John said.
John says he would love to one day see BiliRoo implemented in Nepal at the hospital in his hometown. He also wants to continue developing BiliRoo and other medical devices for low resource settings.
John says the next step for BiliRoo is clinical trials and manufacturing.
For more information on BiliRoo, click here.
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