Generally, people barely think about their first action of the day: getting out of bed. But for people with limited mobility, it can be a daily moment of strain, dependence, and frustration. That is the problem Noctimed is trying to solve. This Lebanese-French startup is building a medical device meant to help people with disabilities move between sitting and lying in bed autonomously, safely, and without physical effort. 

Ahmad Chalhoub, Noctimed’s founder, is originally an occupational therapist. That background gave Noctimed its point of entry: the idea came from direct contact with the problem. 

If someone cannot get into or out of bed without another person, dependence enters an ordinary routine, so does physical strain on caregivers. Ahmad Chalhoub, in an interview with Lebanon Innovate described the moment in practical terms: In situations such as severe obesity or advanced age, some people may find it difficult, or sometimes impossible, to perform this movement independently. He also noted that for the people who help, the transfer is exhausting. “The most important problem for the caregiver is the one who helps the patient,” he said. 

During his time as an occupational therapist, Chalhoub was close to a problem no one seemed to notice. He said he began observing patients in hospitals and noticed one movement causing trouble again and again: sitting at the edge of the bed, lowering the legs, pivoting, and lying down; or reversing that movement to get back up. 

The idea for Noctimed can be traced back to a particular patient Chalhoub encountered while working in a hospital in northeastern France. A woman was living with severe obesity. She remained largely independent in most aspects of daily life but her main difficulty was getting into bed. Because she could no longer perform the transfer on her own and had nobody at home to help her, she stopped sleeping in her bed altogether. "For two or three months, she slept on her couch," Chalhoub recalls. Eventually, she asked to be admitted to hospital, not because she needed intensive medical treatment, not because her condition had worsened, but because there would be someone there to help her get into bed. "It was difficult for the patient, but it was also difficult for the hospital," he says. 

At the same time, caregivers were paying a physical price. 

Chalhoub notes that helping someone perform this transfer often requires lifting and pivoting a significant portion of their body weight. Repeated over time, these movements can contribute to musculoskeletal injuries among healthcare workers and family caregivers alike. 

He also explained that current devices on the market do not fully address the problem. Some exist in private settings and one is used in hospitals, but all of them require another person to operate them, which, in his opinion, defies the purpose. “The common point of these devices is that someone else has to pilot the medical device. There is no autonomy,” he said. 

The device Noctimed is currently building is designed around that question. Chalhoub describes a system with two plates and two motors: one part cancels the weight of the legs, another cancels the weight of the upper body, and the electric mechanism applies pressure in a way that helps the body move from sitting to lying down and back again. 

"The objective is really for the patient to be autonomous," Chalhoub says. "To be able to lie down and get up from bed whenever they want." 

Noctimed’s co-design process is important because the product is not being built from the outside in, but in the opposite. Chalhoub said the team worked with 70 health professionals, 14 healthcare establishments, and about ten patients. 

The point of co-design is not only to make the device usable. It is to make sure the device reflects the reality of care as it is actually lived by patients, clinicians, and family members. 

Noctimed offers a different insight into what innovation can look like when it addresses one repeated problem instead of one grand abstract idea. 

Chalhoub said the company is pursuing a B2B model rather than selling directly to patients, because a startup cannot distribute and maintain a medical device everywhere from day one. He also described a long regulatory timeline, with clinical and user testing phases still ahead and market launch planned only after those steps are complete. In other words, the product is not just a technical object; it is also a regulatory and commercial process. 

Sometimes the most meaningful innovation is not the one that looks the biggest. It is the one that makes a basic act feel human again. For someone with reduced mobility, being able to get into bed or get out of it without strain, dependence, or fear changes more than just convenience. It changes the shape of the day. That is the story Noctimed is trying to tell.