The Nicholson Foundation and Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, joined together on October 27th to choose the best ideas that potentially can change health care delivery. The two day competition entitled, “Health Care Delivery Idea-thon,” began with the formation of multi-disciplinary teams in search of NJIT’s Inaugural TechQuest Competition Highlights NJIT Innovation Day or innovative solutions within the healthcare industry.
Fourteen teams pitched their ideas to the panel of judges who chose the three winning teams for the finals scheduled for spring 2015. The three winning teams comprised of Entrepreneur Alumni Panel at Rutgers Business School, students, and staff were: Copernicus, Health Literacy Through Testing, and Health S.A.G.A.
Each team was awarded $5,000 and will also receive consultations with Idea-thon organizers and health care experts that will lead to the further development of the ideas. Margaret Brennan-Tonetta, Ph.D, Associate Vice President for Economic Development, who initiated the idea-thon, comments, “The Idea-thon generated many unique ideas for improving health care delivery. The requirement to create teams that consisted of medical students/health care professionals with non-medical disciplines such as engineering and public policy really helped to develop concepts that were comprehensive in approach and design.”
The winning proposals were:
Copernicus: Incentivizes diabetic patients in underserved populations by actively engaging with them in their diabetes management through a mobile platform. The platform provides notification, media content and reward incentives for disease tracking, medication adherence, improved health literacy and communication with providers. Users receive points by employing clinically proven health-promoting
Health Literacy Through Testing: Aims to improve health literacy and the patient-doctor relationship through testing of health literacy in the waiting room. The test will provide a snapshot of a patient’s problem areas to improve education and compliance, as well as provide invaluable data regarding health literacy.
Health S.A.G.A: Proposes a mobile health application called “CareGoggles” for locating affordable healthcare options for the rehabilitation population in Newark. CareGoggles will improve primary care access and health outcomes, thereby empowering patients to become better stewards of their own health.
The Health Care Delivery Idea-thon scheduled for next spring will award $50,000 to the highest-rated team. Between now and the finals each team will work on refining and developing their idea. The ultimate winner will use the prize money to plan, develop and implement the idea in a health care or community setting affiliated with Rutgers.
Photo: Team Copernicus, which is composed of RWJ Medical second years Joshua David, Brian Friel, Jonathan Haskel, Tom Nahass, Sam Schild, & Rutgers University Senior Michael Sabbagh. Barbara Kang, Director of Community Health, The Nicholson Foundation is on right.
Read More about the Nicholson Foundation and Rutgers Collaboration on the Healtcare Delivery Idea-thon
