The innovative idea of CareBuddy brought three Universitas Indonesia (UI) students to win first place in the “Ideanation 2023 Business Plan Competition” held by the Bogor Agricultural Institute (IPB) Business School, on Friday (24/11), at the Arch Hotel Bogor, West Java. The three students were Maritza Andreanne Rafa Ayusha, Muhammad Candrika Agyawisnu Yuwono, and Bryant Lewi Santoso, who are all students from the UI Faculty of Medicine.
CareBuddy is a platform to ease the burden on elderly caregivers. This innovative idea was created as a solution to overcome the three main problems faced by elderly caregivers at home, namely discomfort when an elderly person falls without anyone knowing, confusion in caring for the elderly, and lack of cooperation between family members in caring for the elderly.
Student Team Leader, Maritza, explained that this platform provides three main features, namely CareFall, CareSync, and CareLearn. The CareFall feature can detect imbalances and falls in the elderly through integration with hardware installed in the elderly’s body. CareSync helps manage tasks between family members who are caregivers, while CareLearn provides structured learning about elderly caregiving.
Meanwhile, one of the team members, Candrika, assessed that with business competitions like this, students become aware that design thinking skills and cross-disciplinary collaboration are very important in realizing innovations that are beneficial to public health.
“As students from the Faculty of Medicine, we understand that implementing ideas that have a positive impact requires synergy between fields, such as medicine, business, and technology. The medical field cannot stand alone. Collaboration between fields allows us to experience the benefits directly and present holistic solutions for public health, especially in the current industry 5.0 era,” said Candrika.
The idea for the CareBuddy innovation emerged when the three students took the Medical Technology Sociopreneurship (MTSP) module as part of the learning in their study program. The process of developing this idea then received guidance and support from lecturers and mentors, namely Prasandhya Astagiri Yusuf, Ph.D.; Ir. Muhammad Hanif Nadhif, S.T.; Dr. Irzan Nurman, M.Sc, EPC; Arierta Pujitresnani, M.Si.; Prof. dr. Ardi Findyartini; NS. Sigit Mohammad Nuzul, M. Biomed.; Azwin, S.Tr.Kes.; and dr. Luthfi Saiful Arif.
Thanks to the neat synergy between students, lecturers and mentors, CareBuddy’s innovative idea was selected as the winner in a competition involving hundreds of teams from various well-known universities in Indonesia. The UI Student Team was crowned the winner after passing several assessment stages, starting from the business model canvas to the business proposal. Of the total 290 teams, CareBuddy managed to enter the final stage along with the other 6 best teams.
Dean of FKUI, Prof. Dr. dr. Ari Fahrial Syam, appreciated the achievements by the three students. “This award is not only a source of pride for the faculty, but also shows the great potential of FKUI students in creating innovations that have a positive impact on society. Hopefully, CareBuddy will continue to develop and provide great benefits for elderly caregivers throughout Indonesia,” said Prof. Ari Fahrial.
