A buzz of creativity and knowledge, the Care Innovation Challenge hub was full of activity and insightful discussions on the final day of the Care Show. The five finalists showcased their ideas, and their bright, informative posters were displayed for all attendees to read. Described by many of this year’s mentors as one of the most exciting and innovative years of the challenge yet, the finalists were subject to extensive questioning by curious passersby.
The public vote closed just before midday and the judges united to discuss their thoughts on the finalists and carefully weighed up the strengths of each idea to come to a final decision. The judges named Ellyfe as the winner of the 2024 Care Innovation Challenge – the team has developed a wearable device designed to support hydration monitoring for older people in their homes, whilst at hospital or in care homes.
Elizabeth Beh, Founder of Tresacare and last year’s Care Innovation Challenge winner, said, ‘As their mentor, I’ve learned valuable lessons too. Encouraging Keerthi to share her personal story behind Ellyfe reminded me of the power of vulnerability in leadership. It has inspired me to embrace my own journey as a Founder, something I’ve been hesitant to do in the past.’
CMM: Congratulations to Team Ellyfe! What has been your experience of the Care Show?
Hemanth: It has been my first Care Show, and I am so thrilled to be learning, testing our product and engaging with people. It has been an incredibly productive day that I will remember for a long time. The whole show is helpful and fun too. It has been great to interact with the right audience and receive feedback on our testing and learn from others. We have met with the purest souls – the people who are really interested in helping other people. This is a community, and we feel we are in safe hands now. I cannot put it into words how much the challenge has supported us.
CMM: How are you feeling after your win?
Hemanth: I am feeling happy and relaxed – mixed emotions because I was questioned a lot while testing. At the end of the day, it paid off not only in terms of our win but also in terms of networking and making connections and a great deal of happiness when people are sharing their experiences with us and praising our product. Hearing people praising the company and our cause is helpful and gives us a big boost.
If someone recognises that hydration is very important, then we are amazed. The show has been a great time to ensure our technical research and cause are understandable and marketable for a wide audience on a very positive note. That is our biggest challenge. We have received some feedback about digestibility in the past but today, we have felt so confident and gained some fantastic results from testing attendees.
CMM: What have you been up to since becoming finalists?
Keerthi: We have been working on testing and improving the product and we bought quite a lot of patches. We also did testing on people we know. It gave us a lot of insight into what we can improve. We wanted customers to be part of the development process because we are making it for them, so we want them to be included. We have to show our appreciation to the Care Innovation Challenge and the people we met.
We are grateful to be in touch with all the other participants here at the Care Innovation Challenge final. We went to Anna Lewkowicz of Team EVA’s care home and tested all the residents and even the higher management team. They gave very good feedback, and the residents loved it and the interaction with Hemanth.
Hemanth: The welcome I received from the care home and the residents was unbelievable. The people are so warm and welcoming. We did our research to give the residents the best experience; we made sure the patches were skin-friendly and non-irritable and received some good feedback from the carers and residents. When I spoke with the carers, they felt positive about a result-oriented device which gives immediate results on their hydration levels which helps carers focus on these people.
CMM: What is your background in care and your connection to the people this is going to help?
Hemanth: I have a technical background in electronics and data science. I have worked in the sector where I was able to understand what exactly health meant for people to gauge their comfort, their level of treatment and how technology can support them. I also worked closely with a healthcare team where I built foundational knowledge of how health systems can run, and I was able to bring in my technology expertise in terms of saving lives in a well-balanced way.
Keerthi: For me, a few years ago, we lost our grandfather as a result of dehydration. We did not want what happened to my grandfather to happen to anyone else so that is where we got this inspiration from. We wanted to understand marketability, so we worked with the care sector to understand people. This is not just a problem of my grandfather’s. There are a lot of people suffering and we need to do something about it.
CMM: Who were some of the mentors that helped you out during the challenge?
Hemanth: Elizabeth Beh, Founder of Tresacare and last year’s Care Innovation Challenge winner, brought a lot of things to us. She transformed our pitching in a very positive way including aiding us with how to be candid with people and smiling.
Keerthi: She does a lot for us, and she wanted us to be there as fighting spirits. Even after our win, she gave us feedback explaining what we could improve on. Elizabeth, Ala Szczepura, Liam Palmer, Alex Nash and Toshio Nomura have all been great mentors and offered us guidance. Paula Sardinha has also been one of the backbones for us.
CMM: What does 2025 look like for Ellyfe?
Keerthi: While Hemanth is working on the development process, we also want to continue testing so that we can gather more feedback. It also helps us going forward if we can get some more paid testing which can generate some revenue which we can put back into the product. By July 2025, we want our product to be on the market.
Hemanth: 2025 will be the launching stage. We have conducted trials, concept analysis, concept evaluation, testing and have spoken with people but we want to utilise all these things for the launch. Also in 2025, we want to reach different market analyses and distributions. We are planning to get some user analysis, performance feedback and information about our competitors. This can help us understand what people are loving and what the limitations are from person to person. This can help us to go into 2026 with bigger plans. We have big plans but before that, we want 2025 to be our main learning year.
CMM: What do care managers such as our readers have to look forward to from Ellyfe?
Keerthi: Dehydration is a problem which can lead to many other problems like UTIs and kidney issues. Hydration is important for everyone but older people over 65 have reduced thirst sensation which can lead to these problems. If we can prevent dehydration, it will prevent lots of other problems in the future. This will contribute to better care for care home residents. I am sure it will be helpful in improving the quality of care and lifespan.
Professor Vic Rayner OBE, Chief Executive of the National Care Forum (NCF), said, ‘The ideas, the energy and the expertise in the room is incredible. The judges are all blown away by how much these teams have managed to do in the intervening months. The challenge is a hugely collaborative experience, and everybody is insistent on getting it right for care.
‘On behalf of the whole Care Innovation Challenge and NCF team I warmly congratulate our winners, Ellyfe, who have a concept that could be so valuable for so many people in the sector and therefore they are the ones who we think can make a real difference. They have worked so hard; they have kept coming back and have shown enormous perseverance. They have been out and testing across the care sector learning and developing their product so it is as good as it can be. They are committed to making it a reality and are so committed to social care.
‘It has been a fantastic competition. If this has piqued your interest and you have a great idea, we are coming back next year with another challenge. There are so many things we can do in care to make the sector better and it’s only with your excitement, enthusiasm and support we can make that happen.’
CMM would like to congratulate this year’s Care Innovation Challenge finalists – the passion, commitment, creativity and team spirit shown by Team Ellyfe, Team Total Care Manager, Team EVA, Team Carpe and Team Care Coach was exceptional. CMM cannot wait to see how all the finalists develop their ideas as they aim to support the sector. Applications are now open for the 2025 Challenge! Visit the Care Innovation Hub website for more information.