Personal Connected Health Alliance And WEGO Health Announce Winner Of "Flip the Patient" Challenge

LAS VEGAS, March 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance), a HIMSS organization, and WEGO Health, the world's largest network of patient leaders, today announced Get Real Health as the winner of its first "Flip the Patient" Challenge. The award was announced in the PCHAlliance Connected Health Experience at the 2018 HIMSS Global Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas. The Connected Health Experience showcases a range of innovative startup, early stage and established companies with disruptive health technologies.

The "Flip the Patient" Challenge was created by PCHAlliance and WEGO Health, a PCHAlliance member organization, to encourage innovators to collaborate with patient leaders on the design, development and deployment of their solutions. The winner received a monetary award of $5,000, which will go towards consulting services provided by patient subject matter experts who are active in WEGO Health's patient leader community.

"When connected health innovators bring new solutions to market that are intended to help patients, they invariably benefit when patients have participated in the design process," said David Goldsmith, chief strategy officer at WEGO Health. "This challenge was created to support forward thinking companies that have committed to collaborating with patients throughout the product lifecycle -- from discovery to prototype to launch."

PCHAlliance and HIMSS Corporate members, which represent a diverse cross section of connected health and health IT companies, were invited to submit proposals that demonstrated a novel approach to working with patient experts on an aspect of technology design, development and deployment. WEGO Health's experts are drawn from its network of patient leaders, which include more than 125,000 patient advocates and influencers managing chronic, complex and rare conditions.   

Get Real Health was chosen as the winner of the challenge by an independent committee comprised of select PCHAlliance leaders and members of WEGO Health's patient advisory board.

"We are pleased to partner with WEGO Health to bring patient-driven innovation to companies that are committed to human-centered design, and advance our goal to achieve better health through information and technology," said Rich Scarfo, vice president, PCHAlliance. "This is a unique opportunity to provide innovative companies developing the next generation of connected health technologies with insights and expertise from those they ultimately seek to help—the patient."

Get Real Health plans to collaborate with an advisory board of WEGO Health's patient experts in the design and development of the company's newest care management product, Ellie—a mobile app that links patients and care managers in a collaborative and meaningful personal care relationship. In addition to gathering insights, a panel of WEGO Health patient experts will provide Get Real Health with user feedback to support design sprints and iterative product development.

About Get Real Health
Get Real Health combines a world of new information from patients, devices and apps with existing clinical data to help individuals and healthcare professionals engage and empower each other. By giving providers and patients the information and tools they need to work together, we help our customers meet their ever-changing patient engagement needs. We help them deliver value-based care, improve outcomes, activate patients, increase patient loyalty and satisfaction, all while meeting regulatory requirements.

About PCHAlliance
The Personal Connected Health Alliance (PCHAlliance), a non-profit organization formed by HIMSS (Health Information and Management Systems Society), believes that health is personal and extends beyond healthcare. PCHAlliance accelerates technical, business, policy and social strategies necessary to advance personal connected health. PCHAlliance members are a vibrant ecosystem of technology and life sciences industry icons and innovative, early stage companies along with governments, academic institutions, and associations from around the world. To support its vision, PCHAlliance convenes the global personal connected health community at the annual Connected Health Conference, the premier international event for the exchange of research, evidence, ideas, innovations and opportunities in personal connected health. The Alliance also publishes and promotes adoption of the Continua Design Guidelines, recognized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the international standard for safe, secure, and reliable exchange of data to and from personal health devices.

About WEGO Health
WEGO Health is a mission-driven company connecting healthcare with the experience, skills and insights of patient leaders, working across virtually all health conditions and topics. WEGO Health's network collaborates with startups, life sciences companies, non-profits, agencies, government and all types of organizations across healthcare. WEGO Health offers enterprise and on-demand solutions that allow organizations to leverage patient experience and expertise in the design, development, and promotion of their products and services.

WEGO Health brings patient experts directly into the healthcare industry to drive patient-centered innovation. The company's network includes more than 100,000 vetted patients and caregivers who manage chronic and complex health conditions. WEGO Health Experts is the first on-demand platform that matches companies seeking patient expertise with vetted patient leader advisors, collaborators and influencers.

SOURCE Personal Connected Health Alliance

Related Links

http://www.pchalliance.org