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dbomb220648 karma

I have an idea that I think can be a goldmine... It has to do with the medical field. I only stumbled onto this idea because I'm in a wheelchair. The most common problem amongst people in wheelchairs are skin breakdowns. Pressure sores and general skin issues. Pressure relief is incredibly important.

The problem is that no great wheelchair cushion relieves pressure automatically. Wheelchair cushions are expensive and don't do that great of a job. With everyone getting older this is a problem that's going to grow. That's just the symptoms. The recovery itself if you get a serious pressure sore is to completely off load. Which means lying in bed all day regardless. So I thought the idea could double up into something like a premium wheelchair cushion, and a seating cushion that you can throw on any lay-z boy or living room chair. So hypothetically you are injured then you wouldn't have to spend all day in bed. You could get up and sit for a few hours without totally destroying recovery. This would also help with national health care costs everywhere since it is a pretty common problem.

The idea I had is based off cusions they already have. Something that would need to be single cell so it can isolate any injury. Single replaceable cells could be something that saves people a lot of trouble vs. having to replace an entire cushion when it breaks down. Average price of a cushion is anywhere near 500$-2K every time. It would have to be on some type of fanny pack pump that you could strap to your chair. Something that requires a battery. Obviously aesthetics would be important so people would want to use it. But there is no real great solutions out there. And there's nothing that allows you to change single individual cells. So if something broke down then the client would be able to buy 4-5 replacement cells. So not only are you building a brand that could be the best in it's field, but you're giving people options to buy a 2nd and buy replacement cells as issues arise.

My problem is that I'm not an engineer by any stretch. So designing this. Testing this would be difficult. I could only put a limited amount of funding behind it, but I truly believe that this would change peoples lives.

So my questions is where do I go from here? From the I just have an idea stage to where to start...

It sounds stupid but living with a pressure sore is defeating. Especially in a wheelchair. You run into serious issues like other bed sores, depression, anxiety, withdrawal from society, pain, infection, sepsis, etc... I've been thinking about this for a few years but wouldn't even know where to start with it... Thanks for doing this AMA. I hope Reddit approves of my idea. ;)