A team of student entrepreneurs is developing an innovative toy-like medical device that makes health care more accessible for children by accurately measuring their hand grip strength.  

“A child’s grip strength is a simple but powerful way to check on a child’s health but most of the tools available are built for the larger, stronger adult hands,” says Deena Al-Sammak, co-founder of the new venture Power of Play.  

Al-Sammak and her co-founder Rooaa Shanshal launched Power of Play as part of course work in McMaster’s Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences program (iBioMed) program. They took the idea beyond the classroom after interviewing occupational and physical therapists about the gaps in care for young people living with everything from autism to disorders like cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy.  

“Children are important members of our society, and they deserve equal access to medical care. They need medical devices that are engaging to use and precise,” said Al-Sammak. “The big picture for me is making healthcare more accessible for children.” 

Big hearts for small hands 

The Power of Play team is one of ten teams taking part in The Forge’s summer Startup Survivor program. Five of the top teams will advance to The Pitch Competition where student entrepreneurs will compete for cash prizes before a panel of judges and a live audience. The team has received support through McMaster’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, which includes The Clinic health innovation hub, where Power of Play recently won first place at its Health Innovation Bootcamp. 

“I was very affected by the lack of devices for children with disabilities,” said co-founder Rooaa Shanshal. “I look at my younger cousins and think if anything ever happened to them and they didn’t have access to proper rehab tools – that’s just heartbreaking. We want to ensure children are set up for success. That’s where my passion for this project comes from.” 

Student entrepreneurs design for the real world 

The inspiration for the device, which will light up and make sounds, originated during a conversation Al-Sammak had with McMaster Professor Tara Packham. An assistant professor of rehabilitation science, Packham stressed to Al-Sammak that children are an underserved population when it comes to technology to support their rehabilitation. 

“We interviewed 35 professionals because we really wanted to understand the field,” said Shanshal. “The clinical element really grounds your reality as an entrepreneur. It shaped our perspective and helped us understand what children actually need rather than what we think they need.” 

Professionals also urged the team to look beyond the device to consider how medical technology that features a stimulus – like seeing and hearing a response to an action – can be used for patients of all ages to help them engage with their rehabilitation. 

Both Al-Sammak and Shanshal say their experience building a startup has been humbling but there has been good support along the way. “There’s a lot of mentors that you can reach out to. There is obviously The Forge and The Clinic, but there are also the professors themselves who are pushing for innovation and want to help student entrepreneurs,” said Shanshal. 

Al-Sammak said, “There’s nothing special about us. We are average students. Entrepreneurship is not about being smart. It’s about tapping into everything we have available here and believing that it’s possible.”