Senior Shield, a startup working to keep nursing home patients and seniors healthy through remote monitoring, took home $10,000 from the UGA Entrepreneurship Program’s second Health and Wellness Pitch Contest at Studio 225.  

Kareem Elfoulie, a recent mechanical engineering graduate from Georgia Tech, created a noninvasive wearable that alerts caregivers when their senior loved ones need incontinence garments changed.

Elfoulie presented Senior Shield to judges at the Nov. 14 pitch contest, and they were impressed with his strategy for getting the wearable sensor approved for Medicare reimbursement.

“Obviously, you guys built a prototype, which we were impressed with, and created the website and the connection — that’s very impressive,” Hulet Smith, judge and co-founder of Rehabmart health equipment, told Elfoulie. “You know the Medicare billing codes that would apply and showed you understand where health care is trending right now — which is working to keep people out of the hospital. I don’t think there are many undergraduate students who know or care this much about Medicare funding.”

Elfoulie and his co-founders plan to use the prize to fund the trials necessary to take Senior Shield to market and secure Medicare approval. Elfoulie also won the UGA Entrepreneurship Program’s Idea Accelerator pitch contest on Oct. 30.

Elfoulie was one of six student founders participating in the Health and Wellness Pitch Contest.

The contest, sponsored by UGA alumnus Joel Katz (BBA ’85) and his wife Kathy, supports business ideas to improve consumer physical or mental health. Each contestant in the pitch contest went through UGA’s Idea Accelerator program to hone their pitches.

Judges included Smith, Joel Katz, an investor based in Austin, Texas; Jim Donnelly, serial entrepreneur and co-founder of wellness company Humanaut Health; and Beau Seagraves, UGA Associate Vice President for Student Well-being.

In addition to Senior Shield, the judges awarded second place and $5,000 to Green Tree, an oat-based vegan sour cream developed by UGA food science graduate student Halle Greenbaum. Greenbaum commercially produces her sour cream for retail and direct-to-consumer sales at the UGA Food Product Innovation and Commercialization Center in Griffin.

Third place went to MidnightSnackzz, a snack bar designed to avoid blood sugar spikes and support better sleep created by Terry College management information systems student Michael Hearnes. Hearnes will use the $2,500 to secure farmers market space and get additional training to sell his bars to a larger customer base.

In addition to the top three businesses, judges watched presentations about:

• Mindful Sprouts, an outdoor enrichment program for elementary-aged students, created by UGA ecology student and mom Amaryah Lockett.
• TheraPal.ai, an AI chatbot serving as an entry point for traditional counseling and therapy for people needing help to start their journey, created by cognitive science student Clark McDowell.
• RecoverAid, a subscription box service for athletes recovering from injuries, designed by UGA MPA student Erin McMeniman. Each box provides a gift and inspiring stories from pro and college athletes who have overcome injuries.
  
  

The mission of the UGA Entrepreneurship Program is to develop the mindset of future entrepreneurs and prepare students for business leadership roles. UGA Entrepreneurship Program accelerators are open to UGA students and the Athens community.