MINNETONKA, Minn., and NEW YORK (April 23, 2018) Lyfebulb LLC and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) invite patient entrepreneurs to compete in “Empowering Patients: An Innovation Challenge,” for the first-ever Lyfebulb and UnitedHealth Group Innovation Award.
Established companies of all sizes founded by patients, or people supporting patients who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and who have created a product or service to address an issue encountered by IBD patients are invited to submit applications between April 16 and May 31, 2018.
“Lyfebulb’s mission is to reduce the burden of chronic disease,” said Dr. Karin Hehenberger, founder and CEO of Lyfebulb. “We believe patient entrepreneurs have unique insights into the needs of their communities and can create much-needed, patient-driven solutions for problems they face. In addition to the prize money, our events provide opportunities for exposure and collaboration among these innovative entrepreneurs and the expert jury.”
The 2018 Lyfebulb – UnitedHealth Group Innovation Challenge will recognize the top patient entrepreneurs developing innovative ideas for better management of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) using healthcare information technology, medical devices, consumer products or services. Patient entrepreneurs are individuals with a chronic disease, or who have a close relative or loved one with a chronic disease, and have founded or lead a company bringing innovative solutions to the market place. Companies based in the United States or Canada (excluding Quebec) are eligible to apply through the Lyfebulb and UnitedHealth Group Empowering Patients: An Innovation Challenge website, where more information is available regarding eligibility and key criteria.
After a thorough sourcing and screening process, 10 finalists will be selected by a joint steering committee composed of Lyfebulb and UnitedHealth Group executives. UnitedHealth Group will host the Empowering Patients event July 24-25, 2018, at its headquarters in Minnetonka, Minn. The finalists will pitch their solutions to an esteemed panel of IBD experts from the business, medical and patient communities. This jury will award three prizes to the entrepreneurs with the most innovative and impactful solutions: $25,000 to the winning entrepreneur, and $15,000 and $10,000 to the second and third place finalists, respectively.
“At UnitedHealth Group, we continually look for new solutions that can improve the health and well-being for the people we are privileged to serve, in this case for patients living with chronic diseases, including IBD,” said Dr. Deneen Vojta, UnitedHealth Group executive vice president, Research & Development. “By leveraging patient-driven innovation, we can accelerate getting the most relevant ideas, inspired by personal experiences, into the marketplace.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 1.3 million people in the United States are affected by IBD.
About Lyfebulb
Lyfebulb is a chronic disease focused, patient empowerment platform that connects patients, industry (manufacturers and payers) and investors to support user-driven innovation. Lyfebulb promotes a healthy, take-charge lifestyle for those affected by chronic disease. Grounded with its strong foundation in Diabetes, the company has expanded disease states covered into Cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
See www.lyfebulb.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Karin Hehenberger LinkedIn, and Lyfebulb LinkedIn.
About UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) is a diversified health and well-being company dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and helping make the health system work better for everyone. UnitedHealth Group offers a broad spectrum of products and services through two distinct platforms: UnitedHealthcare, which provides health care coverage and benefits services; and Optum, which provides information and technology-enabled health services. For more information, visit UnitedHealth Group at http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com or follow @UnitedHealthGrp on Twitter.
Contact:
Lyfebulb
Karin Hehenberger, M.D., Ph.D., CEO
917-575-0210; Karin@lyfebulb.com
UnitedHealth Group
Tyler Mason
424-333-6122, tyler.mason@uhg.com
Dr. Squinto has over 25 years of biotechnology industry experience and has received numerous honors and awards from academic and professional organizations for his scientific work. Dr. Squinto received his BA in Chemistry and PhD in Biochemistry and Biophysics from Loyola University of Chicago. Dr. Squinto was a co-founder of Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and recently served as its Executive Vice President and Chief Global Operations Officer. Prior to 2013 he was Alexion’s Global Head of Research and Development. From 1988 to 1992, Dr. Squinto held various positions at Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Prior to Regeneron, he held a joint academic position at both the Tulane University and LSU Medical Schools. Since 2015, Dr. Squinto has been a venture partner at Orbimed, where he serves as a board member of a number of portfolio companies in the life sciences space.
Join us for an informal, chat-style discussion between two Lyfebulb community members living with Ulcerative Colitis, Sneha Dave & Grady Stewart, lightly moderated by Lyfebulb CEO Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD. We are all living during unprecedented times created by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has put new and additional burdens on those living with a chronic disease like IBD. Do you want to hear how others in the IBD community have adapted to the new normal? This event, part of our fireside chat series, will spotlight innovative solutions and adaptations, developed by patients, for a quarantined reality in order to manage chronic disease. We will be sure to discuss today’s IBD landscape as a whole, so we encourage you to submit any specific discussion topics or questions that you’d like us to cover!
Date: September 30, 2020
Time: 04:30 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)
See the replay here:
Hillary’s grandfather died of colon cancer because he’d never been screened for this preventable yet tragically common disease. Because of him, and because of her grandmother who is now fighting terminal colon cancer as well, Hillary became a physician and trained at Stanford and Columbia in internal medicine and oncology. She then founded GutSavvy because she recognized it was not enough to treat cancer once it’s already occurred – that the bulk of impact is in prevention. Over 40 million people in the U.S. alone miss their screening each year, due to fear, inconvenience, and lack of awareness. Alarmingly, colorectal cancer rates are also rising disproportionally in the young adult population. The GutSavvy team is dedicated to the mission of democratizing colon cancer screening to stop this disease which affects all of us and takes away too many of our loved ones.
Liberated was founded out of personal necessity. Prior to founding the company, countless hours were spent everyday preparing food my daughter could eat to maintain her specialized diet. While incredibly time consuming, I found the diet well worth the effort, as the symptoms of multiple auto-immune diseases, including epilepsy, psoriasis, IBD, and Hashimoto’s went into remission. Seeing both the incredible benefit of the diet and the challenge of trying to hand-make food that couldn’t be purchased at the store, I decided to form a food company to help others with similar challenges, as well as provide delicious, gourmet, and healthy food for the population at large.
Jen Horonjeff, PhD is a patient advocate and founder & CEO of Savvy Cooperative. Savvy is a patient co-op that provides an online marketplace for savvy patients to share their insights with healthcare innovators in order to co-create better patient-centered solutions. Savvy grew out of a need that Jen saw as both a patient with multiple chronic illnesses and as an researcher and industry consultant. She noticed that professionals talk about patients–not with actual patients. Patient insights are invaluable, because many patients, like herself, have multiple conditions and co-morbidities they are trying to manage, and their priorities may be different than their care teams’. Jen got her PhD in Environmental Medicine at NYU, is a patient-centered outcomes researcher at Columbia University Medical Center, a Consumer Representative for the FDA, a speaker on the importance of patient engagement, and a longtime non-profit volunteer. In 2015, Jen and her husband rode a tandem bicycle from NYC to Florida to raise awareness and funds for one of the patient charities she supports.
Dan is a health care entrepreneur whose passion is using new technologies to improve people’s health. He is personally committed to improving the lives of people with IBD because his mother suffers from the disease. Dan started his career commercializing new technologies at Stanford University’s Office of Technology Licensing. Later, Dan helped launch two early-stage technology startups and served as Business Development Director for Mount Sinai Medical Center securing partnerships in the digital health space. In 2014, Dan co-founded and served as COO of Cohero Health, Inc., which brought to market one of the world’s first connected digital health solutions for people with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Dan now is the CEO of Oshi Health, a digital platform revolutionizing the management and treatment of IBD.
Brett Tripp is the owner of Tripp Design, a design and 3D printing company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Brett was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at a young age and has been a patient advocate ever since. Frustrated with the lack of customizable options when it came to wearable medical devices to manage IBD, Brett created his own medical device using his design expertise. Using the small space in his garage, he started 3D printing custom ostomy wafers. He took this initial prototype to his physician and the idea launched from there. Brett now makes custom 3D printed wearable medical products for patients at the University of Michigan Hospital.
Scott was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2009. He struggled with the related dietary issues and food intolerances from IBD, which drove him to found Nima. Nima is the world’s first portable gluten sensor, allowing people to test their food for gluten and determine if is contaminated. Designed to give everyone the ability to understand and control their health through diet and to provide peace of mind at mealtime, Nima has been recognized as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions. It will launch a peanut sensor in 2018, and will expand to other contaminants and allergens, ike pesticides and dairy in the future. Scott was awarded Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 award for his work with Nima.