Erin Smith a nine teen year old girl, thought unlike anyone else. She was watching a video of a guy named Michael Fox, and from that video, Smith had some great ideas, and she couldn’t get those ideas off her mind. Her analysis of it was “Whenever a Parkinson’s patient would laugh or smile, it came off as really emotionally distant.” Smith took this and reached out to clinicians and caregivers to ask about this, and she found out that they have seen similar facial expressions from their patients. This was all before a Parkinson’s diagnosis was made. Smith who is a science enthusiast grew up doing experiments in her own kitchen. She wanted to make a change so people could be diagnosed with a disease, so she got to work and started to build a diagnostic system that was called FacePrint. This is really cool to see, as Smith saw a problem with a laugh or a smile, she knew there was a issue and that she needed to make a change to help these people out. She innovated in a special way to help this generation with a serious problem. Face Print is a selfie stick that captures changes in facial expressions over time to help catch disorders like Parkinson’s. Smith hopes that FacePrint becomes a tool that diagnoses and monitors the disease. As of now, her creation has an 88 percent accuracy rate and that is nearly 7 percent more than regular tools. Smith has been receiving funds from Michael Fox foundation and pharmaceutical companies. Her technology is going under trial at Standford University. Smith has done some many great things with this product and to sum it up she had said this “I really want to optimize for my personal learning,” and “as well as for the best way I can help shape and build the future of neurological and mental healthcare.” This is so amazing for a teenager to do. The fact that she is saving our generations health is just so awesome. She definitely fills for a girl with a mind like an entrepreneur but not only that, she wants to help everyone, that is so special.
Link to Source: Meet 16 Teen Founders Who Are Building Big Businesses — and Making Big Money | Entrepreneur
What an amazing innovation from a detail she happened to notice! There is a lot of value in child-like curiosity and connections, as her story shows. Thank goodness she stuck with that hunch about a correlation between facial expressions and potential Parkinson’s patients–it sounds like her research and tools are already so impactful, and will be much more so in the future!