Harvard College's medical and business schools' Health Acceleration Challenge has narrowed its field to four finalists competing for a $150,000 prize.
After researchers at Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard conducted a survey that found one-fifth of physicians felt strongly negative about the healthcare system in the U.S., the college launched an initiative to spur innovation in the industry. The challenge received a total of 478 entries, and the committee narrowed the field to four finalists in November, according to LabOutlook.
Contestants had to meet the criteria of reducing costs in healthcare while improving quality and access to treatment, providing hard data from more than one site that proves that the project does improve quality and access and having a plan for rapid and widespread deployment of their projects, according to the report. A final winner will be chosen in April.
The four finalists include:
∙ I-Pass, a Boston Children's Hospital-based training program designed to enhance communications training in hospitals to prevent medical errors
∙ Twine Health, a Cambridge, Mass.-based collaborative care app in which patients can work with their physicians to develop a health plan and receive medication reminders and pointers on how to adhere to a healthier diet
∙ Bloodbuy, a Dallas-based cloud-based platform that releases information about the average price of blood to prevent hospitals from paying too much due to geographic disparities across the U.S.
∙ Medalogix, a Nashville, Tenn.-based data analytics company that helps to identify patients who will benefit from palliative care to improve end-of-life care