How do you perform complex surgical procedures in energy-impoverished areas? How might an elderly person in a rural town keep his hearing aids charged where there is no established power infrastructure? These questions highlight real-life problems and concerns that people face all around the world—both abroad and here in the United States. 

Over the years, there have been numerous studies that have established direct correlations between poverty, energy access and poor healthcare outcomes.  In a 2015 publication released by the National Institute of Health (NIH), “health systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are faced with high burdens of surgical disease, insufficient surgical practitioners and frequent shortages of essential implements for basic surgical care”.  Moreover, a recent 2022 NIH publication estimates that “16% of the U.S. households experience energy poverty” which, according to the Consumer Energy Alliance, is equivalent to “approximately 30 million U.S. households being energy insecure”. To me, this is an unacceptable reality that must be changed and underscores the urgent need for cost-accessible, scalable alternative power solutions enhancing our local and global communities’ health and quality of life.

Fueled by this call to action, I have sought to integrate my passion for learning and innovation with my professional career and education in medicine and business to help address these multifaceted health challenges stemming from lack of access to reliable sources of energy. Most recently, these endeavors have culminated in my development of two potential solutions: one to address the larger-scale power requirements to realize complex surgical procedures in underserved, energy-impoverished locales, and a second, smaller device for use on an individual level. For the former, I have built a scalable mobile power station prototype which uses a combination of wind and solar renewable energy. In its current form, the system can meet the power demands of a standard operating room for up to two hours. The second power-generation and storage device, which converts the kinetic energy created by the movement of walking into electric energy that can be stored, and which can be used to charge small medical devices like hearing aids. In its current iteration, this device can generate a quarter of a volt per stride, which is a breakthrough conversion ratio, thereby maximizing the harnessing of energy generated by movement. Moreover, my preliminary testing data show that an individual can share or use the device to fully charge a hearing aid with only 1.5 miles of walking – posing as an accessible solution to enhance the health and quality of life for many around the globe.