Dapper Fox Design Entrepreneurship Scholarship

“I am pursuing an entrepreneurial and design career as I am determined to utilize my ability to design, develop and execute solutions in the form of products or systems to address problems that face our society. I have taken steps to prepare and propel myself on this journey, including extending my higher education at the University of Washington (UW) by studying Interaction Design and Entrepreneurship, and beginning my own self-led entrepreneurial venture to create a positive impact on society. My mission is to reduce improper medication consumption among the elderly population and save lives.

I used to spend countless hours helping my grandmother sort her medication for the upcoming week, but even after sorting the medication I would frequently receive phone calls from her wondering if she had taken her medication. She often forgot the correct times to take her pills and even took too many at once. After dealing with the aftermath I began to ask myself why there wasn’t a better way. I did some initial research, and It turned out there wasn’t a prominent solution to this issue. I then conducted further primary and secondary research to understand the user needs and societal needs and found that 4 out of 5 elderly adults live with chronic conditions that require frequent medication use and on average people take 5 to 7 prescription medications each day. That is a lot of prescription medications to manage especially when memory impaired users are trying to keep track of them all. In fact, over 60% take their medications improperly, causing over 140,000 elderly deaths in the US alone each year (“Fact Sheet: Prescription Medication Use by Older Adults,” 2005). 

Upon identifying those persisting societal issues I developed Healthfull. Healthfull is a practical solution to help mitigate improper medication consumption. It is a smart pill dispenser that alerts users via their smart devices when their medications are ready to dispense. It then prompts the user to safely dispense them ensuring that the user never misses, or double takes a dose again. 

To develop Healthfull, I elicited a team of 4 engineering students at the University of Washington with my idea and initial concepts sketches and together we refined and 3D modeled a solution that went through many iterations to provide an optimal product for the elderly population and designated problem. However, we didn’t stop there; we then developed the program to run the machine, built the dispenser and designed an app to run the dispenser’s functions. We then had a fully operational product that addressed all the issues identified in the research phase. The dispenser is seamlessly controlled by a companion app which alerts you when medications are ready to be taken. It is also used to allow users to easily assign family members access to their account where they can limit certain features for users who have more serious conditions, and track if the primary user has dispensed their medications on time. Furthermore, the app allows safe access to the locked refill compartment which can be opened when the yellow LED is lit up meaning 12 or less pills remain. When refilling, the compartment spins to the appropriate compartment and the refill door, designed to easily fit a 60-cc pill bottle, will open (for visuals visit: chandlersimon.com/healthfull/). 

I choose to attend the University of Washington for their highly regarded design and business school programs, but also for the campus’s vast resources. I use the resources from the libraries to the makerspaces where I developed Healthfull to my current on campus job. I bet on myself when choosing to attend UW and I am not squandering this opportunity. The Dapper Fox Design Entrepreneurship Scholarship is an opportunity for me to continue my learning at UW and will allow me to continue to push myself daily to explore and utilize the resources provided to me to further my education in and out of the classroom. This scholarship would help alleviate some of my stress worrying about how I will pay for UW’s tuition and housing and with less burden, I could scale back some of my hours at work and focus more on my learning and Healthfull. It is my hope that one-day Healthfull will be a product that successfully helps reduce improper medicine consumptions, saves lives, mitigates the stresses of caring for ill family members and creates a positive societal impact.”