Brigham and Women’s Is Hosting a Shark Tank-Style Competition
Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is looking for solutions to the challenges that hospitals face when it comes to patient experience and engagement with their BWH iHub Pilot Shark Tank Challenge, which will be held Monday, April 28. Produced by the BWH’s iHub Innovation Center, the event will feature 10 startup health care companies all vying for the opportunity to be paired with BWH clinical faculty to test their solutions.
BWH reps say that more than 40 health technology companies and hackers applied for the challenge, and 10 finalists were selected by BWH clinicians who will test the winning solutions. The finalists are: CareMon; Constant Therapy; Healo; Home Team Therapy; MySafeCare; Revvo; Tenacity Health; Twine Health, Inc; VerbalCare; and Vital Score. For background on each finalist, click here.
“The Brigham is a site of pioneering breakthroughs that have improved lives around the world,” Lesley Solomon, the executive director of BWH’s iHub said in a statement. “But like many hospitals, we are constantly working to improve both the patient experience and engagement with patients and their families. At the same time, startup companies are challenged with not having the right clinical partner or environment to pilot—or test—their products or services. We’re excited about this competition and believe it is a novel way of addressing these challenges by providing entrepreneurs with direct access to our talented clinicians to collaboratively advance health care innovation.”
The finalists will get five minutes in front of the judges (BWH docs and leadership) in a Shark Tank-style setting. The judges can ask the finalists questions about their solutions and will then decide which solutions to move forward with pilots.
According to BWH:
The winners will have the opportunity to pilot their solution for two to six weeks at BWH during the 2014 calendar year; access to a BWH pilot design advisor pre-pilot and during the pilot period; the ability to formally present to the BWH iHub; and BWH will agree to serve as a reference to potential investors.
“We’re thrilled to see the incredibly high quality of solutions that have been submitted,” said Allen B. Kachalia, a BWH physician and judging panelist. “We are excited to start collaborating on the proposals that come out of the competition.”
The event is open to the innovation community in Boston as well as BWH employees.
