Fall 2024 Cohort
Astraea Global Health
Founded by Aleksandra Thurman (MSN ’27)
Astraea Global Health is a medical delivery solution that addresses local infrastructure and training needs. By leveraging drone technology, Astraea focuses on developing training programs for community healthcare workers and local populations, addressing the challenges of targeted healthcare provision in resource-scarce regions. The organization is committed to creating sustainable healthcare systems by reintegrating local training and infrastructure into drone-based medical care, ensuring efficient and impactful service delivery.
De-Stress
Founded by Arinze Agu (MPH ’25)
De-Stress is an AI tool for goal-driven individuals to enjoy a thriving career without sacrificing their mental well-being. It leverages AI for personalized stress management and productivity enhancement, targeting students and professionals seeking a balanced life. It offers features including My Self-Care Kit, which provides non-generic mindfulness exercises and meditation guides specific to users' needs, and My Goals, enabling users to set and track SMART goals assisted by AI. The app synchronizes tasks across platforms and prioritizes them using AI algorithms.
Longinus
Founded by Sebastian A. Salazar (MPH ’25)
Longinus leverages cutting-edge AI and comprehensive data surveillance to address critical gaps in tracking and managing infectious diseases, enhancing both preparedness and response capabilities. The solution involves a four-step process designed to significantly improve disease monitoring and response, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and under-resourced areas in the United States.
Nisa Project: Health Literacy for Newcomer Women
Founded by Nishah Jaferi (BS ’25)
The Nisa Project promotes women’s health literacy through programming that is committed to cultural competence, accessibility, and community. They believe that revolutionizing the healthcare experience for women refugees and immigrants demands more than just language translation services. Community health programming necessitates a community-centric approach, whereby health promotion efforts adequately address the unique health experience of migrant communities. Their first iteration of programming featured six 20-hour seminar-style sessions on various topics in women’s health delivered at a refugee program in New Haven, CT. The Nisa Project’s programming strives to tailor health education for refugee, asylum seeking, and undocumented women with a critical understanding of intersections between health status, immigration, and culture.
NurseBrain
Founded by Samu Mhlambi (DNP ’27)
NurseBrain is an AI powered platform that standardizes nursing communication and workflows through mobile, portable technology that can function offline. This innovative solution directly addresses the critical issue of communication-based medical errors, with a particular focus on benefiting low and middle-income countries and under-resourced areas in the United States.
Pyari
Founded by Nikita Paudel (BA '25)
Pyari revolutionizes menstrual health management through four key areas: education, products, infrastructure, and advocacy. The venture runs arts-based workshops and awareness sessions to build empathy and open conversations around menstruation and provides educator training modules, menstrual health kits for children, and a menstrual tracking bracelet, with reusable products in development. They also perform menstrual health audits to assess and enhance facilities in schools, offices, and other spaces.
Respond Crisis Translation
Founded by Jack Carew (PhD '27)
Respond Crisis Translation is a collective of translators and language activists providing trauma-informed language access support in 180+ languages to migrants, refugees, and all for whom language is a barrier to accessing safety and dignity. Respond facilitates the work of more than 600 partner nonprofits working on the frontlines of the refugee and resettlement crisis, in addition to directly serving individual asylum seekers and refugees who reach out for language support. Respond’s work has created 600 jobs for linguists who are themselves refugees, asylees, deportees and speakers of marginalized and Indigenous languages.
Rhythmix XR
Founded by Ryan Bose-Roy (BS, BA '24) and Lana Zheng (BS ’25)
Rhythmix leverages virtual reality (VR) and immersive technology to provide accessible, engaging, and effective physical therapy solutions, particularly for post-operative rehabilitation like total knee replacement. The innovation lies in creating an immersive and interactive platform where patients can engage in therapy exercises through VR while playing music—transforming their rehabilitation experience into something enjoyable and personalized. By offering a cost-effective, mobile-friendly solution, Rhythmix can help bridge the gap in healthcare services, empowering patients to access effective rehabilitation tools from the comfort of their homes.
SBT Flow Systems
Founded by Oghenetefike Okotete (MPH ’26)
The SBT-Flow Systems is a venture that develops small-scale, cost-effective irrigation systems that leverage groundwater for agriculture, a largely untapped resource in West Africa. This innovative solution involves the design and implementation of a low-pressure micro-irrigation (drip) system that delivers water directly to crops with minimal waste. Its aim is to tackle food insecurity and agricultural challenges affecting low- and middle-income countries. The approach requires minimal lifestyle changes while educating the local population, focusing instead on improving critical areas, particularly irrigation.
whyMED
Founded by Dheeman Klair (BS ’26)
whyMED is an AI educational tool designed to answer patient questions about prescription medications. It provides explanations such as the rationale behind prescriptions, the mechanism of action, and drug interactions. Patients can initially complete a quick diagnostic test, and our unique algorithm uses the results to determine their health literacy level. Using this data, the AI personalizes its responses with appropriate vocabulary and added explanations to ensure that information is accessible and easy to understand. It also anticipates common follow-up questions the user may have, to encourage further medical education.
7th Sense Foundation
Founded by Alexandr Kulichkov (EMPH ‘26)
7th Sense Foundation is a comprehensive, multi-dimensional program that aims to create a impact by addressing the root causes of poor health outcomes including lack of education, food insecurity, and unstable housing. This venture focuses on nurturing a child's full potential by developing critical life skills, including emotional intelligence, personal well-being, and community engagement. This holistic approach empowers children to become agents of change within their own communities, fostering sustainable development practices that directly impact public health.