About
MedWheel was a smart medication dispenser designed to assist those who have difficulties reliably taking their medication. The prototype won First Place (overall "Best of Show") at YCP Hacks 2024. It later went on to participate in the McNees Accelerator for startup companies in early 2025, where the idea was pitched to a group of early investors. The backstory and motivation behind MedWheel was later featured in York College's news article on the McNees Accelerator.
The MedWheel was co-developed with Baia Grdzelishvili, Youssouf Hassan, and Orion Mulgrew.
The Idea
The core problems that we observed was that the average variety of medication is large, schedules can be erratic, and often those who are supposed to take medication often forget to do so. The motivation behind MedWheel was to make a pill dispenser which could be organized, schedule medications, and ensure that those medications were taken.
The design features a tabletop pill dispenser (with a number of separated compartments), alongside a mobile app companion which manages medication dosage and scheduling. This app would have been available for either loved ones, caretakers, or the person taking medication themselves. The pill dispenser would have included a scale at the bottom, which would inform the app if the pills have been taken or not. The MedWheel also included an optional alarm, for an auditory reminder.
Part 1 - The Hackathon Project
The MedWheel was first introduced to the public during our presentation for YCP Hacks 2024 (11/1/2024 - 11/3/2024). We spent all ~60 hours of the event developing a prototype (out of an old shoebox and paper plate glued a stepper motor), and a mobile app with a backend server to control the device and store user information.
Following our presentation, the MedWheel was awarded first place overall.
Startup Company
Immediately after the hackathon victory, the project started to receive a lot of interest. People would ask us to make this into a real product, as they had loved ones who would benefit from a solution like this. Seeing a market opportunity, we decided to explore the possibility of making this idea into a real product. The first thing we did was apply for the McNees Accelerator Program through York College's J.D. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship.
The accelerator was an 8 week program that helped us seriously evaluate our value proposition, conduct market research, evaluate what was to be included as a minimum viable product, project our finances, and ultimately pitch our idea to a group of investors.
MedWheel competed against a myriad of local businesses for a $5000 initial investment. Ultimately, the investors felt that this money would be of greater benefit to a business with a smaller scope than ours. Nevertheless, we received lots of positive feedback regarding the idea, and even some requests for an early prototype.
Despite not receiving any starting capital, I believe that our business proposition was based on a strong foundation. I am extremely proud of the work that the team did throughout this process, and the lessons we've learned along the way are invaluable. Based on the feedback that we've received, I believe that The MedWheel would have been an extremely successful product. However, at the end of the day each of us decided to move onto bigger and better things.