Two hundred days in a hospital bed is a long time to think.
![Wei-Jien Tan and Robert Quinn are winning grants for the vital signs monitoring patch.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170629200224im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/w/v/f/w/4/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gwvfuf.png/1498114951948.jpg)
For liver transplant patient turned entrepreneur Robert Quinn, it sparked the most exciting idea of his career.
"I was just lying there, and I realised basically the only reason I was there is because they needed to monitor my vitals," the Sydney based co-founder said.
"It was extremely mentally taxing especially as I was a uni student at the time. Even one extra day out of hospital would have meant the world to me."
Skip to five years out of hospital and Quinn and co-founder Wei-Jien Tan are winning grants for their vital signs monitoring patch, which they hope will help users stay healthy while not being bound to a hospital room.
The latest grant is $40,000 from St George's Kick Start program. The money is a boost and contributes to a base built on $25,000 from Jobs for NSW, $40,000 from muru-D accelerator and personal funds.
"It's exhilarating and stressful," said Quinn who studied mechatronic engineering and biomedical science and only started on the company full time four months ago.
"As I said to my mum it's the best job I've ever had because this is an opportunity to do something I care about. I don't mind that I'm up til 10 at night or working weekends."
Quinn and Tan's company Patch'd is in the process of testing the torso-worn product on potential patients as well as navigating ways to get Patch'd in front of hospitals in Australia and insurance providers in the US.
Regulatory hurdles for the technology may see Patch'd initially marketed as Class 2 anxiety device in Australia.
In the US, however, where a night in hospital can see individuals billed thousands, the product will be aimed at insurance companies.
"We need to figure out which pathway to take in terms of regulatory approach and that will determine whether we stay here or go to the American market."
Quinn is the first to admit there are other vital sign monitors out there, the most prominent being US-based Fitbit.
"I actually have a Fitbit, but I use to read my text messages," he said.
"The Fitbit heart rate monitor is somewhat prone to error. What we want is to be highly accurate and more of a clinical product rather than a fitness wearable."
Waste not want not
Patch'd won the best new business idea grant from St George Bank, with the runner-up Goterra, a Canberra-based company turning food waste into livestock feed using modular mobile insect farms.
Founder Olympia Yarger is also at the prototype stage. She's developing a modular system that will take food waste such as grape muck or restaurant leftovers and turn them into live crickets that could be fed to pigs, chickens and even pets.
"Food miles are becoming less and less feasible. We see insect farming as an industrialised solution to an industrial issue," Yarger said.
"Consumers now want to know the story of their food and they want to fall in love with their food so farmers are starting to have to tell stories about their food. The insect feed gives the farmer a really great story to tell as well as a waste fix."