Well known Kiwi inventor Professor Keith Alexander of the University of Canterbury wouldn’t accept that his children jumping on a trampoline should be at risk of serious injury, so he created the Springfree trampoline which has become the world’s safest trampoline and saved millions of hospital visits for children around the world.
Similarly, when Keith learned that caregivers at the local hospital were being injured regularly from moving patients, he set about developing a better solution and founded HT Systems. The company’s flagship product, the Kera sit2sit, is a new type of hoist that allows a sole caregiver to effortlessly support a wheelchair user who requires assistance with transfers between seats. The Kera is helping individuals and couples retain independence by taking the time and strain out of the transfers.
HT Systems are delighted to be supporting the Charly project by donating a Kera hoist for wheelies who may need it on their journey. Perfect for the road trip, the Kera is compact, lightweight and requires no batteries. It makes transfers quick and easy, leaving more time and energy to spend on adventure!
HT Systems CTO, Dr Alex O’Keefe, is passionate about developing products that have the potential to revolutionise mobility. Alex’s younger sister is a wheelchair user and growing up she would use piggybacks on her older brothers as her means of transferring from her wheelchair. Alex’s understanding of what it’s like to be a transfer device has driven him to develop new ways for people to move, particularly the new lifting vest as in the image shown. This revolutionary new product can lift a person out of a wheelchair via just a ‘hug’ around the upper body. Paring the lifting vest with an overhead hoist allows a whole new freedom of movement. It is an exciting time in the product journey as it is ready to be trialled by users to find its true potential to wheelchair users. Knowing his sister’s passion for outdoor pursuits, Alex envisions ways it could be used for simplifying transfers onto horseback or sit-ski.
As a fledgling technology company, HT Systems is in a growth phase and is limited not by its aspirations but by resources and capital. They recently raised capital to speed up the launch of current products in the pipeline and to support the growth of the Kera into larger markets in North America and Europe. They are open to strategic investment relationships to join their growth journey.
