Making pediatric safety wearable

Track 1 supports nurse-led solutions from health systems and nursing organizations in high-resource countries, providing funding to advance scalable, system-ready innovations. The Blythedale team took a simple truth – the hospital ID band, which is one of the most fundamental safety tools in healthcare, often fails the children who need it most.

Kids with sensory sensitivities, developmental differences, or medical trauma frequently rip off or refuse wristbands, dropping ID compliance below 60% and forcing nurses to rely on verbal cues or visual recognition during medication administration and transitions of care. It’s a daily work-around that introduces unnecessary risk and stress for everyone involved. The team at Blythedale Children’s Hospital decided that identification shouldn’t be a battle. It should be built around the child.

SafeSticker is a medical-grade, skin-safe sticker or temporary tattoo that securely displays a child’s name, date of birth, medical record number, and a barcode for EMR scanning, all in a playful, sensory-friendly design. Instead of a constricting, unfamiliar wristband, SafeSticker becomes part of the child’s experience: colorful, noninvasive, and tolerated far more easily than traditional ID methods.

Behind the calm, kid-centered design is rigorous clinical planning. Barcode functionality has been validated in EMR testing environments, nursing leaders have shaped integration workflows, and Child Life specialists helped guide sticker themes and sensory considerations. In its pilot footprint, SafeSticker is poised to dramatically increase ID compliance, streamline medication verification, and reduce near-miss events that stem from misidentification.

The $175,000 Track 1 investment will support prototype production, EMR integration, staff training, and impact evaluation, paving the way for scale across pediatrics, behavioral health, long-term care, and even EMS settings.

Delivering Ghana’s first nurse-led, solar powered dialysis model

Track 2 is designed for nurse-led teams in low-resource countries, funding solutions that expand access, strengthen infrastructure, and advance health equity. The NephroHaven team tackled a major access issue in Ghana – chronic kidney disease affects more than 4.4 million Ghanaians, yet fewer than 1,200 people in the entire country receive dialysis.

Machines sit idle due to unreliable power. Families pay the equivalent of $700–$1,000 per month for treatment. Children and young adults miss lifesaving sessions because of cost, distance, or outages, while nurses and clinicians navigate a system stretched far beyond capacity.

NephroHaven’s nurse-led team envisioned different path: sustainable infrastructure, equitable financing, and holistic, human-centered kidney care.

The NephroHaven center will run on a solar-grid hybrid system designed to maintain uninterrupted dialysis even in the face of persistent electrical outages. Four dialysis machines and a reverse osmosis system will anchor care delivery, while solar integration protects equipment, reduces operational costs, and ensures continuity for patients who cannot afford a missed session.

But the model goes beyond power. A three-tiered financing structure blends national insurance reimbursement, private pay, and a solidarity fund to ensure affordability, including 30 free sessions annually for children under 18. Nurses will lead on operations, supported by a multidisciplinary team of nephrologists, social workers, biomedical engineers, mental health professionals, and community health partners.

Another defining feature is psychosocial support. Dialysis patients in Ghana often face stigma, depression, and profound financial distress. NephroHaven integrates mental health services into its clinical model, making emotional care as core as technical care.

With the $175,000 Track 2 grant, the team will launch a fully operational one-year pilot delivering 312 dialysis sessions monthly, screening 1,500 people annually for CKD, and generating real-world data for national replication.

Modernizing hemodynamic monitoring in seconds

Track 3 invests in early-stage U.S. nursing startups, helping nurse entrepreneurs refine, test, and bring forward new technologies and care delivery innovations. The InspiroSense team illustrated that in critical care settings, accuracy is the difference between stability and crisis, yet one of the most fundamental tasks nurses perform – leveling a pressure transducer – still relies on tools better suited for construction sites than ICUs.

Manual levels are bulky, awkward, and imprecise. They require nurses to squeeze behind equipment, reposition fragile patients, and contort around IV lines. The process can take minutes, introduces risk of skin injury, and compounds fatigue across already demanding shifts.

The InspiroAxis device attaches directly to IV poles or transducer holders, automatically levels the transducer in under 30 seconds, and maintains accuracy without requiring nurses to perform repeated manual adjustments. The design is compact, intuitive, and compatible with commonly used cardiac monitoring systems.

Preliminary testing at UCLA's Coronary Care Unit shows:

• Significantly reduced time spent on leveling
• Improved precision and workflow consistency
• High nursing satisfaction and ease of use

For a workforce managing critically ill patients, those time savings and reductions in physical strain translate directly into safer care and more sustainable practice.

The $30,000 Track 3 award will advance prototype refinement, human factors studies, regulatory preparation, and early clinical usability testing through UCLA’s Biodesign Innovation Program, setting the foundation for broader adoption.

Across three continents and three very different care environments, these awardees share a common ethos: proximity to the problem is a catalyst for innovation.

Each solution is deeply rooted in lived experience, and built with the systems mindset needed for scalable, lasting change. Together, they represent the very best of NurseHack4Health: bold ideas, evidence-driven design, and the belief that when nurses lead, healthcare moves forward.

Join NurseHack4Health in 2026! Don’t miss the Tech-A-Thon at HIMSS25, or the Innovation Sprint at AONL 2026, and stay tuned for details about the 2026 Pitch-A-Thon!