Patient advocacy groups are being encouraged to work together to improve patient outcomes as part of a new innovation challenge launched this week by Sanofi US.
For the Collaborate Activate Challenge, groups made up of patient advocates, caregivers and providers are tasked with identifying new ways to encourage patient engagement and to help patients navigate their journeys with their conditions, according to a company statement.
Entries have to get people to take a more active role in their own healthcare. The only team composition rule is that groups based in the United States include at least two nonprofit advocacy groups or medical professional organizations, or some combination of the two.
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The teams are encouraged 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.
The competition is open until the end of August. Four teams selected as finalists on Sept. 17 will receive $25,000 and mentorship opportunities to develop their ideas. A winner chosen Nov. 15 will get an additional $500,000 and a runner-up will receive $100,000.
Bridgewater, New Jersey-based Sanofi’s latest challenge comes on the heels of its data diabetes challenge, a crowdsourcing competition to uncover innovative approaches to improving the quality, delivery and cost of care for diabetes. Discussing the results of the competition with MedCity News, Michele Polz, head of patient solutions for Sanofi US Diabetes said: “Challenges like this play an integral role. They open up innovation across the organization. We do believe the best solutions to meet patient needs often emerge from outside the company.”
