A competition has launched to find disruptive innovations that could dramatically reshape the health and healthcare marketplace. The online competition, “Disruptive Innovations in Health and Health Care: Solutions People Want,” is being sponsored by the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and uses a unique open-source competition model that promotes enterprising solutions to social problems.
The “Disruptive Innovations” competition, which runs through July 18, expects to attract entrepreneurs from within and outside the healthcare field whose ideas might lead to new services, tools, and choices that consumers want but are currently out of reach because of cost or complexity or because the right idea hasn’t surfaced. Examples of disruptive innovations that are already transforming health care are home glucose monitors that give diabetics the ability to get blood glucose readings at home within seconds, and walk-in health clinics in retail stores.
Twelve competition finalists will be selected by a panel of judges, and the three winners will each receive a $5,000 cash prize. In addition, RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio will review competition entries and may award up to $5 million to support projects with potential for the greatest impact. Read the news release.
