Groningen start-up competes for the Medical Inspirator Prize with portable drip

The Groningen start-up IVWear, headed by Prof. Bart Verkerke from the UMCG, is competing for the Medical Inspirator Prize, run by ZonMw. This spring, the project being carried out by students Max, Melcher and Niels (the development of a portable drip) was chosen from over 80 entries as a finalist for the prize. The students must now spend a month competing with two other projects to win the most votes for their project. The project with the most votes will win € 75,000. The concept of a portable drip evolved from the idea that patients should be more mobile during a stay in hospital. Exercise is one of the most important ways to speed up recovery after an operation, for example. The more patients exercise, the sooner they will be discharged and the smaller their chances of being readmitted. The portable drip removes both the physical and the emotional obstacles to getting out of bed. It enables patients to climb stairs, cross thresholds and go outside, but it also stops them from feeling like a patient because they don’t have to drag a drip stand around with them wherever they go. The portable drip made by IVWear can get patients out of bed all around the world.

It all started last February. Bart Verkerke (Professor of Biomedical Product Development at the UMCG) was already toying with the idea of developing a portable drip. After attending a course at the University of Groningen Centre of Entrepreneurship, Max (research physician) and Melcher (law student) also became inspired by the idea. They saw huge potential of this new invention. Bart Verkerke put them in touch with Niels (student of biomedical technology). Niels’ uncle had spent a lot of time in hospital a few years earlier and Niels knew just how much the drip stand had restricted his uncle's movement during these lengthy stays. And so a highly motivated team was born. Eight months later, they have an almost full-time project on their hands and have made huge progress. In partnership with the University of Groningen, they have applied for patent on their invention and are about to test the first prototype at the UMCG. Winning this prize would represent an enormous step forward in the development of the portable drip. The repetitive process of building and testing the drip is both time-consuming and expensive. The prize money would speed up the process considerably. Anyone with an e-mail address can go to the ZonMw website and vote for ‘IVWear maakt infusen draagbaar’ (IVWear makes drips portable). The winner will be announced on 23 November.