Heelia

What it does

Half of women >50 have osteoporosis. It is easily treatable; yet late and infrequent screening at 65+ and every 2 years block patients from proactive action. Heelia is a low-cost, at-home ultrasound monitor that aims to democratize bone health care for women.

Your inspiration

In 2022, Michelle’s mom sustained a traumatic hand injury and was diagnosed with osteoporosis and rapid bone loss. She began taking calcium and doing weight-bearing exercises, but got confusing feedback at her 2-year checkup. Reitwiec’s grandma suffered multilevel osteoporotic collapse from a minor fall, something an earlier intervention could’ve helped prevent. When we met at Cornell, women in our lives had similar stories. Despite the disease being easily treatable, the lack of feedback and awareness caused women to fear daily activities. We set out to improve the quality of life for women and help them manage their bone health proactively.

How it works

Our design repurposes existing literature and tech into a low-cost ultrasound scanner that measures bone density at the heel. It uses a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller ($10) to control a signal generator, which creates a 2.4 MHz ultrasonic wave—ideal for passing through bone. The sound is shaped into short pulses and amplified to 60 V to reduce signal loss. Two piezoelectric sensors, repurposed from humidifiers to cut costs, send and receive ultrasound on both sides of the heel. As the wave travels through the bone, the device records how long the wave travels and how much it weakens via high-speed sampling. The microcontroller processes this data and sends it to a smartphone app. A time delay algorithm calculates the Z-score, a standard metric comparing bone density to population values for age and body type. We chose the heel bone (calcaneus) through prior literature because it has minimal tissue interference and is an early indicator of bone loss.

Design process

We began by interviewing women aged 50–75 living with osteoporosis and three NY Presbyterian clinicians specializing in bone health. We empathized with patients during conversations around the need for ease of use, transparency, and trust in medical devices. Taking their insights, we sketched dozens of concepts and explored adapting ultrasound for home-use. Learning from open-source projects, we repurposed humidifier parts and soldered our first custom hardware to keep costs low, successfully measuring bone density with ultrasound as a proof of concept. We further iterated on coupling mechanisms—including knobs, calipers, and ballet-inspired flexible wraps—to ensure comfort and signal alignment. A patient model tested our designs for comfort and efficacy. We also tested materials like PLA, TPU, and silicone overmolding, and finally created a design featuring soft, user-friendly “wings” that mold securely to the heel. With each iteration, we simplified the hardware to minimize confusion, even opting for a display-free interface to build for all levels of digital literacy and meet patients with simplicity. Using CAD and 3D printing, we refined the form factor and embedded it with the hardware, validating Heelia’s usability and efficacy through continuous testing and feedback.

How it is different

Heelia is the first and only affordable, at-home bone density monitor designed for women on the market. Medical DXA scans used for osteoporosis diagnosis are late, infrequent, and clinic-bound. Existing portable ultrasound devices on the market, using similar technology to Heelia, cost over $10,000. Heelia’s prototype costs just $150, with potential to go below $100 with design optimizations and scaling using our custom low-cost Raspberry Pi Pico hardware. During user interviews, one woman shared how she had to fight both doctors and insurance for her first scan, only to receive a late diagnosis. Another said she couldn’t understand her DXA results without her doctor. This lack of accessible monitoring prevents women from seeking care, despite osteoporosis being easily treatable. Heelia revolutionizes this by having the patient take control, translating complex data into simple, personalized insights, without waiting years or navigating medical barriers.

Future plans

Over the next few months, we aim to partner with the Open Source Hardware Association for funding and support. We’re also working with the People Aware Computing Lab at Cornell to publish our hardware design and research scaling for production. We are currently in the process of submitting an IRB for potential clinical trials, as well as writing a patent. Our goal is to understand real-world usage patterns and refine the product as a proactive home monitoring tool, not a diagnostic device.. Winning the Dyson award would give us critical funding needed to continue developing the product and bringing it to patients for testing.

Awards