I have a confession to make . . . I’m only an intern at MedCity News. I just graduated high school and even though I’m young, I’ve already gotten a jump on my future as a journalist. Like many high school graduates, I want to change the world someday.
There’s a secret to changing the world that only a few young entrepreneurs and visionaries have figured out though. That secret is there is no age qualification needed to become an entrepreneur. The only things you need are passion, drive and your brain. As cliché as it sounds, you can change the world no matter how old — or young — you are.
Having the opportunity to get a good grip on my future at a young age has allowed me to appreciate the efforts of other people in my boat.
Young adults and kids full of ambition always hear the phrase, “Hit the ground running.” Some of these people put the advice aside, some attempt to apply it, and some actually make it work.
Innovation from young entrepreneurs is everywhere, especially in healthcare. There have been multiple attempts for young entrepreneurs to take a swing in healthcare, but few have actually hit a home run.
These five young entrepreneurs have managed to knock their ideas out of the park and have hit the ground sprinting with their new additions to healthcare.
Partha Unnava
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
The traditional crutch is dying with designs like Partha’s. Partha is a student at Georgia Tech and is the CEO and Co-founder of Better Walk — a crutch that minimizes wrist and underarm pain. The crutch is 3D printed, which allows for easy customization as well as production. Better Walk recently attended the White House’s first Maker Faire. Instead of a traditional, painful crutch, the BetterWalk is more of a “designer crutch.” Partha was inspired to redesign the crutch after spending six painful weeks on crutches himself after a basketball injury. The pointless pain Partha experienced motivated him to shatter the old version of the crutch and create something not only more appealing to the eye, but something more practical and less painful as well.
Megan Holstein
At 15 years old, Megan hired a developer to create multiple apps for autistic children. Megan is studying business management as a current freshman at The Ohio State University. She is also minoring in entrepreneurship. Megan has expanded the company, Pufferfish Software, and now offers six iPhone and iPad apps that address major challenges those on the autism spectrum face on a daily basis. Even though she enjoyed her time developing apps for autism, in the future, she wishes to work with productivity software.
To help people who have app ideas like Megan but don’t know how to get started, Megan wrote a book, Little Idea Big Dream. The book is posted in the iPad bookstore and Megan says the condensed version is, “Just go design your idea and give it life.”
Megan says in an interview with Tech Savvy Women, “If you know what you want, don’t be afraid to go for it. Don’t let your age get in the way. Don’t get in your own head about it.” She continues saying, “If you don’t know what you want yet, don’t pressure yourself over it. Just try new things. You will find it.”
Suman Mulumudi
http://youtu.be/lT10FOmOspg
Suman has also taken advantage of 3D printing and the age of technology by creating a stethoscope smartphone case for doctors. At age 15, Suman is the CEO of Stratoscientific, a company he co-founded with his father. The stethoscope case, or the Steth IO, has an app that connects with the case and records and visualizes the sounds detected by the case. Suman’s goal with the app is to allow more physicians, like his father, to identify abnormal heart sounds in a more precise way.
In an interview with Jimmy Fallon, the 15-year-old explained that the case doesn’t hook up to the app via Bluetooth, but instead, the stethoscope on the case acts like a sound tunnel and sends the heart beat directly to the speakers of the phone.
The app allows you to play back the recording to watch and listen to. Because your heart beat might have irregularities at home but not at the doctor’s, the case and app allow you to show your doctor any unordinary heart patterns that could potentially cause problems later down the road.
Jack Andraka
Fifteen-year-old Jack Andraka gave a Ted talk in 2013 regarding his idea for a new pancreatic cancer detector. Inspired to help those with pancreatic cancer after a family friend passed away, and determined to fix the current slow and ineffective test, Jack landed lab space at Johns Hopkins and created an easy, cheap and effective pancreatic cancer detector.
“Making a cancer sensor out of paper is about as simple as making chocolate chip cookies,” Jack said about the simplicity of his test. Made out of paper, carbon nanotubes, antibodies and water, the test is easy to use, cheap and more effective than our current methods of testing for pancreatic cancer.
The device has shown close to 100 percent accuracy and he hopes that, with some more tinkering, it can be used to test for other diseases as well.
Divya Nag
Divya Nag, 22, is a co-founder of Stem Cell Theranostics. According to the 2014 edition of Forbes’ 30 Under 30, “The company uses what are known as induced pluripotent stem cells to help test experimental medicines.”
Stem Cell Theranostics is the first drug screening company to use disease-specific beating cardiomyocytes (heart cells) derived from human iPSCs to assess safety and efficacy of potential drug candidates. The company identifies cardiotoxic and efficacious compounds early in pharmaceutical development. By doing this, Stem Cell Theranostics significantly reduces the time and cost to bring safe drugs to market.
The young entrepreneur has also started a biotech-friendly incubator at Stanford. She told Forbes that she was extremely passionate about her work and, “… nothing else made sense. It was very clear this was what I wanted to do.”
It doesn’t matter how cliché it sounds, no matter how old you are, you have the capability to change the world with the right mindset and motivation. You don’t have to be a certain age or have a certain amount of experience. As long as you have an idea, motivation and confidence, entrepreneurial success isn’t far away.
