Janssen Healthcare Innovation says three finalists are getting $50,000 each to advance their technologies for coordinating and improving patient care in the gray area that exists between different healthcare providers.
Janssen, which is part of New Brunswick, NJ-based Johnson & Johnson, unveiled its incentive prize competition three months ago to spur entrepreneurs, inventors, and others to come forward with ideas that help maintain the continuity of care after a patient has been discharged. Janssen received more than 100 entries for its “connected care challenge,” according to Kim Park, a founding partner with Janssen Healthcare Innovation in Titusville, NJ. About 10 to 12 submissions were culled from the total, and eight judges screened those to select the three finalists.
The goal of the challenge is to create technology for coordinating patient care within and between different healthcare practices. Many patients often don’t know where to turn if new concerns or problems arise after they are discharged, and the lack of coordination is a big reason why hospital readmissions under Medicare are running roughly $15 billion a year. Janssen worked with the Little Rock, AR-based National Transitions of Care Coalition in developing the challenge.
Each of the three finalists will receive $50,000 to advance their respective ideas, as well as business coaching to help them refine their concepts before making presentations at a planned “Demo Day” in May. An additional $100,000 prize will be awarded to the winner at that time.
The finalists are:
—Cara Health. Chicago-based Cara Health has developed a system to help guide non-clinical staffers through calls with patients providing health status updates. The system uses machine learning technology to predict trends and generate alerts to help caregivers intervene when necessary.
—Care Rocket. Bethesda, MD-based Care Rocket team has developed a risk-assessment tool for designing a patient-centric, post-discharge care plan within 24 hours after the patient has been admitted. An interactive voice response system developed for use by discharged patients helps them adhere to prescribed treatments for optimal recovery.
—Discharge Decision Support System (D2S2). A Hillsborough, NJ-based team has developed a proprietary system that assembles and scores key when patients are admitted to identify those who are at risk for 30-day readmissions.
The finalists are scheduled to make their presentations to the eight-judge panel at Demo Day, which will be hosted by Park at the Johnson & Johnson Global Strategic Design Office in New York City on May 10.
