Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Sanford Health created a $1 million annual award for medical innovation, according to the Argus Leader.
The Lorraine Cross Award will allow winners to use the funds however they see fit. A 12-person panel will begin taking nominations Jan. 1, and winners will be announced in December 2018. Sanford Health researchers will not be eligible for the award.
Sanford CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft hopes the prize will spur more innovative medical discoveries and stop researchers from getting caught up in regulatory red tape.
"Out here on the frontier, we're getting something done, we're finishing things," Mr. Krabbenhoft told the Argus Leader. "That's what we want to honor with this award, it's not just one more award, one more blue ribbon to someone who does something significant, but someone who really finishes something, cures something."