Imagine having a friend who’d nudge you every time you needed to take your medicine dose. They’d organise your pills, hand them to you and with it a glass of water to make things easy.
A cool thought, isn’t it?
Well, that’s exactly what a Class 11 student at Navrachana Higher Secondary School in Gujarat’s Vadodara has innovated; albeit his creation is a miniaturised, robotic version of the said friend.
‘Meditel’, as 15-year-old Nikhil Lemos has christened his brainchild, was born out of an innocent idea to help his grandparents. “I noticed how they would sometimes forget to take their pills,” he explains. In an attempt to ideate, a young Nikhil put pen to paper and sketched what he assumed would be a solution — an alarm system.
And that was it; a doodle on the last page of a notebook. But a science fair at the end of term had him revisit this doodle. “We were supposed to come up with something innovative and I thought of going back to this idea. That’s how Meditel took shape,” he shares.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the innovation has grown with Nikhil; the two have shared a parallel journey, as the idea transcended from being a PowerPoint presentation to a paper model to a basic prototype. From there it transformed into a full-blown electrical model — whose nuances Nikhil found himself explaining to none other than football legend David Beckham in November last year.
The trajectory has been dream-like. And in a tete-a-tete with The Better India, Nikhil lets us in on the details.
‘I just wanted to help’
It is a known fact that skipping one’s medicine dosage is to the detriment of good health. But as Nikhil soon deduced, medication non-adherence wasn’t a one-pronged problem. It had many facets.
“At first, I decided to come up with an alarm system that would alert people when they needed to take their pills. But, eventually, as I observed my grandmother, I realised that even when she did remember, but did not have water handy, she would put it off for later.” This led to Nikhil integrating a reusable water bottle into the device, attached by velcro.
The third component was the pill organiser, born in an attempt to help people who were prescribed multiple doses specific to their meal times. “Meditel allows users to set up to six daily alarms, accommodating various medication schedules like pre/post breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” Nikhil explains. Sourcing the parts and putting the device together was one thing but coding to get the alarm systems in place proved to be a challenge. “This was essentially the first model I was ever building from scratch,” Nikhil says.
“I became savvy with the arduino — an open-source coding board — that sends a signal to the other parts of the device to control their working.” The journey was fraught with learning and spanned months, with Nikhil refining his coding skills, sharpening his technical palette and perfecting Meditel with each learning.
Commending Nikhil’s commitment to approach, his mentor Mukesh Bind shares how his journey with Nikhil began during the World Robot Olympiad (2019) where they met. “Following the competition, Nikhil started learning robotics with me. It was during one of our sessions that he expressed his desire to make a device that would help his grandfather with his medication.”
In 2021, Meditel was deemed complete by Nikhil.
Meditel’s success is reflected in the many accolades that line Nikhil’s shelves — second runners-up at the Jagran Josh Education Awards in the Robotics Category (April 2024); winner of the INSPIRE Awards (2023) — a national-level science fair organised by the Department of Science and Technology; one of 50 innovators at the National Children Innovation Challenge in partnership with UNICEF (2023), a panellist at the World Children’s Day Conference in New Delhi (2023) among others.
But the one that surpassed all of these, Nikhil says, was the recognition from UNICEF in November last year.
‘One of the top three moments of my life’
It isn’t every odd day that you get to stand in front of the legend Beckham and relay your dreams to him. But Nikhil did. And he classifies this as his top-tier moment; one he does not take lightly. Retracing his steps leading up to it, he says it was fated. “I hadn’t planned it. I never applied to UNICEF. In fact, I applied to another competition hosted by the incubation centre of Gujarat University, who sent my project to UNICEF!”
So you can imagine Nikhil’s astonishment when he got a call one day in October 2023 from Sanyam Chhajed, programs manager at GUSEC (Gujarat University Startup and Entrepreneurship Council), informing him about an exhibition where a few dignitaries would be present. One thing led to another and on 13 November, 2023, Nikhil was one of five chosen students from across India presenting his work to Beckham, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
GUSEC has played a pivotal role in his journey, Nikhil points out, adding that he has received immense support from the team there.
The relationship is reciprocal.
As Chhajed shares, they see immense potential in Meditel. “I believe that a device like Meditel will be a revolutionary product for elderly people because of its small size and easy-to-use features.”
As in the case of any product-based innovation, he says optimal funding can help it scale. The same goes for Meditel. “The funding will help Nikhil refine the design, make it more compact, and upgrade its technical features. Additionally, funding will assist in obtaining the required certifications and testing before launching it in the market,” he says.
The team is looking at patenting and releasing the innovation as quickly as possible, after meeting pre-requisite conditions. The reason for the urgency, Chhajed says, is the rising number of health issues.
“The features offered by the device will greatly benefit the intended audience. Such innovations are new to the Indian market, and at VSCIC, we believe that Meditel should be well-supported and funded to reach a large community.”
Support in the form that he has received from UNICEF and GUSEC is gratifying for Nikhil. “When you have such names backing your innovation, it instils a sense of trust in it.” Especially in healthcare, he points out, people are sceptical of trusting innovations. “So this greatly helps.” He adds that he sees Meditel’s scope expanding from being elderly-centric to one that is not bound by age.
This intention stems from a survey Nikhil conducted in February this year, which revealed that it wasn’t just the elderly who forget their pills, but also many youngsters who mirror the same absent-mindedness.
The present seems promising for Meditel, but the innovator in Nikhil has already set his sights on the future. “I am looking at integrating algorithms that will predict data based on medication habits. It will also keep a record of how often one forgets to take their pills and their current health scenario, and use these metrics to judge their future health.”
Will Meditel be part of a larger startup one day?
“Maybe,” smiles Nikhil. “But if I do venture into a startup, I want it to focus on processing healthcare information that can predict people’s future health. I think that would impact the world in a bigger way.”
Whether it is coming up with Meditel or working on ‘Elder Allies’ — an initiative through which Nikhil and his friends teach seniors the basics of tech — this 15-year-old is striving to make his mark in the world using technology as an enabler.
There are moments when doubt takes centre stage, he says. But then, he reminds himself of other youth-led initiatives that are changing the world. “It’s comforting to know that you have a whole community of people who’ve done it before you and will continue to do it. And that gives me confidence,” says Nikhil.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
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