The Innovation Challenge is run by Sanofi US and aligned with the United States government federal initiative to use an open dialogue to drive action toward a three-part aim: innovation in the quality, delivery and cost of diabetes care. The kickoff earlier this year crowd-sourced answers to the question, "What matters most to you?" as it relates to diabetes in order to focus the design winners on products that matter most to patients. All intellectual property and equity remains the property of its creators as Sanofi US seeks only to guide the mentorship and development process. The prizes include:
- Access to entrepreneurial resources, through a partnership with Startup America.
- A Design & Prototyping Bootcamp to orient the semi-finalists to human-centered design and user experience, develop the understanding of diabetes and teach rapid prototyping methodologies.
- Total monetary awards of more than $200,000 by Sanofi US, along with invaluable mentorship and ongoing support.
Last year's challenge winner, Ginger.io, created an app platform for patients to journal their diabetes data that then alerts caregivers to concerning behavioral changes. Following the Innovation Challenge, Ginger.io raised $1.7 million in seed funding and expanded its company with recent addition of Rock Health Accelerator mobile startup, Pipette. Pipette creates mobile software that can detect data patterns or outlier concerns in patient-reported outcomes.
The semi-finalists will be announced March 30th so keeping my fingers crossed. Who knows, dreams can come true right? However, even if it's not my project that is selected, I am excited about the wins for diabetes. :)
(Disclaimer: Sanofi US makes a few common diabetes products: Lantus insulin and Apidra insulin. They will also be releasing the iBGstar glucose meter in the coming months. I do not have any stock or kick-backs from Sanofi US but am working with the creator of the iBGstar meter, AgaMatrix, to develop EndoGoddess app connectivity amongst all of their meters. Again, no stock or kick-backs from AgaMatrix either. Just working towards a future in mobile health of connectivity between all apps and all meters which takes one step at a time.)
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