WISH names winners of young innovators showcase competition

The World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) has announced the winning participants for this year’s Young Innovators competition. The winners will showcase their healthcare inventions at the 2016 WISH Summit on November 29 and 30 in Doha.
The innovations include devices, applications, pioneering delivery models and design-based solutions that aim to improve the quality of care and patient experience, while also reducing costs.
The winning innovators include: Israa Nasir and Kamil Shafiq for ‘Ammi Service’, a voice messaging service to educate women in rural areas about maternal health; Vasundhra Khanna for ‘Bac-Kits’, a home-based testing kit for bacterial infections; Costa Carlos for the ‘OTTAA Project’, a communication platform for people with speech impairments; Abderrahim Bourouis for ‘Wonder Kit’, a multimedia shirt for monitoring children with autism; Said Alfarei for ‘Baseer’, an interactive board that helps blind people read and write English and Arabic; Haris Aghadi and Abdulla ElKhenji for ‘Meddy’, an online network of doctors in Qatar and Malaz Mohamad and Hannah Anderson for developing a teaching device to train patients and caregivers about proper diabetic wound care.
The WISH 2016 Young Innovators represent diverse backgrounds, coming from Pakistan, Argentina, Qatar, United States, India, Oman and Algeria. They will showcase their innovations in the Gallery Area, as part of the WISH Summit.
Another WISH 2016 Young Innovator, Abderrahim Bourouis, was a finalist in season eight of the Arab world’s leading scientific ‘edutainment’ TV programme, Stars of Science. His Smart Autism Shirt is set to become one of the projects that will benefit Qatar’s healthcare sector.
Bourouis said: “I am proud to be showcasing ‘WonderKit’ and to be a part of the WISH Young Innovators programme 2016. My hope is to have ‘WonderKit’ out in the market and to achieve the goal of improving the daily lives of families with autistic children, using this wearable technology.”
Attending the WISH 2016 Summit will provide a gateway for the Young Innovators to network and promote their ideas to leading health experts and delegates from around the world. This once-in-a-lifetime opportunity will allow the Young Innovators to directly communicate with senior global healthcare policy and decision makers.
Egbert Schillings, CEO of WISH, pointed out that the founder of WISH, HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, has a long record of championing the cause of children and young adults.
“That is why this programme showcases the talents of young innovators from Qatar and around the world. This year’s cohort has impressed us with their ingenuity and entrepreneurship, but most of all with their commitment to the fundamental human value of health for all.”