Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care Competition – Solutions People Want

May 15, 2007

I got a note this morning about $5 Million being made available to “Support Ideas That Transform Markets and Empower Consumers.” Here’s the story:

“Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care” is an open source competition to identify ways in which the health and health care marketplace can offer services, tools and choices that consumers want-but are currently out of reach because of cost, complexity or because the right idea hasn’t come along.

We are looking for entrepreneurs both within and outside of the health care field with ideas for new products, services, technologies, business models-or some combination thereof-that enable consumers to manage health and receive care in ways that are more affordable, accessible, simple and convenient.

Examples: Glucose monitors that provide diabetics with the convenience of blood glucose readings in seconds from the comfort of their own home. Walk-in health clinics in retail stores that enable patients to quickly see skilled nurse practitioners who can treat common conditions at lower costs than typical doctor visits.

Enter By: Jul 18, 2007 | Voting Begins: Aug 15, 2007
Winners Announced: Aug 30, 2007

How It Works: Twelve competition finalists will be selected by a panel of judges. You then vote on three winners, who will each receive a $5,000 cash prize from Changemakers. In addition, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Pioneer Portfolio will review competition entries and may award up to $5 million to support projects that show potential for significant impact!

This sounds very cool. You can submit your idea for “Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care” here.

  • http://www.healthybpm.com/ Neel

    The idea of walk-in health clinics sounds very innovative!

  • http://www.rwjf.org/pioneer Susan Promislo

    Hi there — thanks so much for posting the competition on your blog – we appreciate it! More info. is available on RWJF’s Pioneering Ideas blog, the blog of our Pioneer Portfolio. Check it out at http://rwjfblogs.typepad.com/pioneer/2007/04/back_in_january.html.

    Thanks again,
    Susan Promislo, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

  • http://www.cavalryhr.com/news/ Dirk

    I like the sound of this … but, I keep thinking that so many of “our” health care problems seem to have solutions that are pretty much obvious to just about everyone. Take digitizing every health care record in the U.S. for example … we all know that it would save money and prevent tens of thousands of “ignorance” based medical mishaps but we’re dragging our feet.

    Not that we don’t need radical solutions, but don’t we need to implement the obvious practical solutions first?

    Just asking.

  • http://shahid.shah.org Shahid N. Shah

    Dirk, great point. However, in health care we’re so far behind in tech usage in some cases that the obvious solutions may themselves be disruptive! :-)

  • http://healthtech.accordingtome.com R Saunders

    I think that wireless health monitors that upload data to PHRs constitute a disruptive technology: http://healthtech.accordingtome.com/2007/06/25/future-innovations-in-personal-health/

  • http://changemakers.net/en-us/node/1036 Tara

    Voting is now in progress! You can comment on & vote for your favorite 3 here: http://changemakers.net/en-us/competition/disruptive#vote

    My favorite involves a twist on the traditional way of doing telemedicine:

    “Project ECHO: Knowledge Networks for the Treatment of Complex Diseases in Remote, Rural, Underserved Communities”

  • http://www.gccf.ucla.edu Eric Rice, PhD

    The disruptive innovations contest at Changemakers.net is nearing its end. I encourage anyone who is interested in the process of disruptive innovations to go to the webpage and vote for their 3 favorite innovations.

    Personally, I work at UCLA and am part of the group sponsoring the Family Coaching Clinics proposal and would love to win some extra votes. To be honest, however, this competition unto itself is a fantastic example of a disruptive innovation in the grant writing and winning process in health care and I encourage everyone to participate regardless of whether you vote for our proposal or not.

    For more information on the UCLA proposal go to http://www.gccf.ucla.edu.

    Thanks,
    Eric Rice, PhD

  • http://www.gccf.ucla.edu/ Bonal Samreth

    Dirk, one of the program I’m fond of that’s in the disruptor competition is the Family Coaching Clinics by UCLA. I personally think family health, while by no mean a panacea, plays a powerful role for other health related issues. Check it out at:

    http://www.gccf.ucla.edu

    Last day to vote is Wed, Aug 29th.

  • http://www.adasport.com/ New sport

    Hello I am very impressed with this blog, thanks for sharing.
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