Health IT

Flu tracker, Alzheimer’s disease test among Sanofi patient advocacy competition finalists

A competition by Sanofi US (NYSE: SNY) intended to improve patient engagement and spur people to take a more active role in their healthcare has whittled the entries down to four finalists. The selected entries span common illnesses like flu, rare diseases, chronic illness and Alzheimer’s disease. Among the criteria for the Collaborate Activate Challenge […]

By Stephanie Baum on November 14, 2012

A competition by Sanofi US (NYSE: SNY) intended to improve patient engagement and spur people to take a more active role in their healthcare has whittled the entries down to four finalists. The selected entries span common illnesses like flu, rare diseases, chronic illness and Alzheimer’s disease.

Among the criteria for the Collaborate Activate Challenge were that teams had to be based in the United States and include members from at least two nonprofit advocacy groups or medical professional organizations, or some combination of the two. Entries had to demonstrate creative problem-solving skills and define the target audience, proposed impact, time frame and the measures for the idea’s success, according to the competition’s website. About 280 organizations submitted entries, according to an e-mailed statement from Sanofi. The finalists are:

  • 21st Century Brain Trust Clinical-grade cognitive testing app to help detect asymptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.
  • Registries for All Diseases Virtual research network using patient-generated information about rare diseases to accelerate clinical trials.
  • FluNearYou Public health resource that tracks flu transmission using crowdsourced data and provides immunization information to help monitor potential public health threats.
  • Partnering to End Pain Web-based technology to connect patients with chronic diseases to a registry that can accelerate clinical research.

The finalists will compete for a $300,000 prize and are scheduled to present their ideas to a team of judges in Washington, DC November 19. The event will be viewed streamed online on the competition’s website starting at 5 pm.

Crowdsourcing competitions have been a growing trend among healthcare and pharmaceutical companies as a way to generate effective approaches for improving patient outcomes and reducing unnecessary hospitalization costs. A division of Janssen Pharmaceuticals held one earlier this year to improve the way in which hospitals follow up with discharged patients to reduce unnecessary readmissions. Earlier this year Sanofi held a crowdsourcing challenge to generate innovative approaches to diabetes.