Jen Schlegel wears a lot of hats. She is a recent Ohio State University Alumna and President’s Prize Fellow, a Biomedical Engineer with patents pending, a Camelback Ventures fellow, and a certified Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator. Jen, founder, kept finding herself on the outside looking in: her brilliant brain was always overshadowed by physical limitations. 

In college it took her three hours to get from one building to another, she couldn’t hold a pen for diagramming, and her dream of going to medical school simply wasn’t possible. It wasn’t her ability to solve the problem at hand—it was the spaces and tools around her.  

If you and Jen were together in the same space right now, and she were to fall to the floor, what would you do? If your first instinct is to call 911, you’re not alone. But would you stop to think about what Jen wants, or even needs, at that moment? For many with complicated health issues, 911 is not always the best option.  

Thus, 119 was born. 119 is a patent-pending mobile system that allows the users to express their health information and needs to those around them, even in situations where they cannot express their needs themselves.