Nurse and netball star Stephanie Vick is developing a new healthcare app.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
Echuca nurse and local netball star Stephanie Vick is raising funds for a healthcare app she developed, which she said could help over a billion people.
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Currently working as a critical care nurse in Shepparton at Goulburn Valley Health’s intensive care unit, Ms Vick was inspired to create the app, KeepSafe, through both professional and personal experience.
“I guess my biggest inspiration came from when my late pop had a fall,” she said.
Her late grandfather, whom she described as a “fiercely independent retired farmer”, wanted to remain at his home for as long as possible.
Her family supported him, but not without concern.
“We wanted to make sure that he felt empowered to still live his life how he wanted to live it ... we then worried every single day about his well-being, because he lived alone.”
Unfortunately, Ms Vick found her grandfather on the floor after a fall when visiting one day.
He was taken to the hospital, where she learned he had fractured his pelvis and would have been unable to stand had Ms Vick not arrived when she did.
This experience, along with “countless” others Ms Vick has witnessed through her 10 years in the healthcare industry, led to the inception of the KeepSafe app.
It aims to enable more vulnerable community members to be supported by family and caregivers remotely by providing them with alerts.
“This does allow for people’s loved ones to live safely, confidently, but also privately.
Stephanie Vick in action during the recent Goulburn Valley League grand final.
Photo by
Aidan Briggs
“In the event that something does actually happen to them, or if something was to happen to them, they can send an alert straight away,” she said.
Users can also set up check-in periods and windows of normal activity, so if the app receives no response or detects inactivity at those times, it’s able to alert a pre-organised safety net.
“You might list your next-door neighbour, your mother, your son, whoever, and it automatically sends a message to them saying that you haven’t checked in today and that something might not be right.”
Ms Vick said the app would be easy to understand and could benefit a broad range of people, including new regional Victorian university students who left home to study.
“It’s also peace of mind for, say, those parents, being able to check in without being overbearing.”
Although cautious, she said the app could also help foster connections that could reduce the reliance on ambulance services for welfare checks, but more research was needed to verify that possibility.
Between looking after three children, completing a Master of Advanced Nursing Practice, and playing for Echuca in the Goulburn Valley League netball finals, Ms Vick has also been carefully developing the app over the past two years.
She said $25,000 of her own money has been spent on research, prototyping and validation surveys.
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