America’s battle against COVID 19 is requiring the highest effort of our healthcare workers, scientists and innovators. One innovating company, Healium, recently took home first prize in the P & G Ventures Innovation Challenge for its stress relief product powered by consumer wearables. Their soothing content has already been deployed to provide stress relief to healthcare workers battling compassion fatigue and burnout in their efforts against COVID 19.
In addition to the $10,000 cash prize, Healium has been given the opportunity to partner with P&G Ventures, giving it access to a nationally-ranked accelerator with up to $200,000 in other benefits.
Healium won the Challenge by pitching the idea of a “digiceuticals aisle” that would place its mental health hygiene products alongside physical hygiene products in drugstores or other retailers. Described as the world’s first immersive media product powered by the body’s electricity, the wearable provides nature-based escapes via augmented or virtual reality with the option to be controlled by the user’s brainwaves or heart rate. Users see stories that are open-eyed escapes that allows their feelings to control virtual worlds—whereby learning to self-regulate their stress.
“When you take a virtual trip to a beautiful 360 landscape, your brain believes what it sees and the nervous system calms down almost immediately. When combined with our biofeedback technology, Healium is a powerful tool to change your mood and your mind,” said Dr. Jeff Tarrant, Chief Scientist for Healium and Director of the Neuromeditation Institute.
Healium’s product dovetails well with P&G Ventures’ focus on discovering and creating consumer products, brands, and businesses that opens up P&G product lines to new categories. The winner of the challenge has access to a global consumer brand that spans approximately 70 countries. Healium’s patented technology leverages the current 225 million wearables in the market, generating 2D data dashboards that gives users a new and innovative way to interact with their biometric data.
“A partner with Procter & Gamble’s global reach would allow us to more quickly get our digiceuticals in the hands of 157 million stressed consumers who are looking for drugless solutions to quickly downshift their nervous systems and escape their current realities,” said Sarah Hill, CEO of Healium.
The Innovation Challenge assists P&G Ventures’ efforts to find visionaries who offer innovative solutions that positively impact people’s lives.
“I truly believe P&G’s next big breakthrough innovation and brand will result from the collaboration of the best of an external partner like Healium and the best of P&G. We are excited to see where Healium and the broader digiceuticals category could go next,” said Leigh Radford, Senior Vice President and General Manager, P&G Ventures.
Corporate clients value Healium as a way to give their remote workers some virtual peace, while aging Veterans unable to physically travel may see their memorials in Washington, DC. Over 7 million experiences have occurred to date.
Healium is quickly piling up accolades that has included being featured by Apple, National Geographic, and the WallStreet Journal, used in case studies ranging from anxiety to addiction, and recognized by six national groups. Healium was named a NASA iTech Finalist, selected for MassChallenge Houston, and won an Edison award for Health & Wellness Tech in 2020. It is a certified women-owned business incubated at the Missouri Innovation Center and accelerated by Mizzou VMS, the Missouri Technology Corporation, ECJC Scale Up, the Women in XR Fund Cohort, Transformative Tech, and the Launch KC| Nueterra Health Accelerator.
Momentum has brought a licensing deal with its use in up to 20 airlines to destress passengers during long flights, winning pitch competitions at CES, taking home a first-place finish at South by Southwest in XR, and being nominated for a Webby for Best Use of Augmented Reality.
Consumers may purchase Healium on the Apple, Google Play, or Oculus stores with subscriptions starting at less than a dollar a day. Enterprises can offer Healium to their employees by contacting the company directly.
