Challenge Statement

This Sponsored Innovation Challenge is a business idea competition seeking solutions to problems that Atrium Health deeply cares about as the sponsoring institution. The Challenge seeks the submission of scalable and investable solutions to problems that lead to or create significant healthcare outcome disparities.

In alignment with Atrium Health’s Impact 2025 Strategic Priorities, successful applications by early-stage founders will focus on entrepreneurial solutions to leading indicators of Health Equity and Health Disparities as opposed to systemic lagging indicators.

The Challenge invites applications for social and technological innovations that can be applied and commercialized with demonstrated potential for social and economic impact on the following leading indicator priorities and Drivers of Health (DOH):

  • Access: Improve access for colorectal screening, A1c control, and blood pressure, behavioral health, and reduce readmissions
  • Quality and Outcomes: Eliminate disparities in mortality rates, mental health, and maternal and child health
  • Acute Social Needs: Support systems, community engagement, structural discrimination, and access to renewable energy/energy security
  • Social Drivers of Health: Economic stability and upward mobility; food security and access to healthy foods; access to affordable housing and commercial districts; affordable transportation; affordable child care, education access, and quality; climate change, air and water pollution, heat mitigation, and landfill diversion

The targeted population is vulnerable communities specifically, African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, and those at 200% of Federal Poverty.

Challenge Timeline

ENTRY PERIOD

Submissions Accepted

ENTRY START DATE
December 1, 2023 (9:00am EDT)

ENTRY END DATE
March 31, 2024 (11:59pm EDT)

ROUND ONE

10 Finalists

JUDGING OF SUBMISSIONS
April 19, 2024

SELECTION OF FINALISTS
Challenge submissions narrowed to 10 finalists

ROUND TWO

10 Finalists

FINALISTS BRIEFING
April 22, 2024

ZOOM VIDEO CONFERENCE
A deeper dive into the Challenge problem statement

PITCH DAY

10 Finalists

PRESENT BUSINESS PLAN
May 18, 2024

IN-PERSON
Cabarrus Center
57 Union St. S., Concord, NC

WINNERS CHOSEN

Up to 5 Winners

WINNERS RECEIVE:

  • $5,000 Starter Grant
  • An invitation to enter a 12-week accelerator program followed by 18 months of incubation at the Cabarrus Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
It’s a serious problem in the healthcare industry: Healthcare organizations struggle to recruit and retain enough staff to effectively serve their patients. Meanwhile, eager young clinical students are struggling to get experience in their field – but the overburdened providers have no bandwidth to manage more interns. Enter Grapefruit Health, a new company that is recruiting, training, onboarding, and managing clinical student workers, providing healthcare organizations with the resou…
After losing her executive job during the pandemic, Cynthia Hayes embarked on a long journey of soul searching and prayer to figure out her next step. After a few job offers didn’t pan out, she took a leap of faith and launched an idea that had lingered in the back of her mind for more than a decade: a food business centered on baked potatoes. Restaurants with loaded baked potatoes as a main course are common in Detroit where she grew up, but Hayes’ target audience is anything but ordinary…
Therapist and entrepreneur Jessica Bruno, LMFT, knows that matching counselors with clients is a struggle. While more people than ever are facing mental health issues, the waiting lists are long at counseling practices. Even those clients with insurance can be left on their own to struggle for weeks and even months while they wait for an appointment. Those without insurance and traditionally underserved populations often go untreated. At the same time, potential therapists — young peop…
Announcing the Winners of the Health Equity Innovation Challenge Concord, NC – August 2, 2024 — The Health Equity Innovation Challenge winners were announced by the Flywheel Foundation. The cohort is underway under the leadership of our title sponsor Atrium Health – Greater Charlotte North Area and other collaborating organizations. The Challenge is in its second year and received over 80 applications. Twenty companies were advanced to the semifinalist round by a screening committee inclu…
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Winners of the inaugural Health Equity Innovation Challenge are halfway through their accelerator and recently spent the day in Concord, NC at the Cabarrus Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship participating in a rapid-fire pitch round robin. The Challenge, sponsored by Atrium Health and administered by the Flywheel Foundation, is a business idea competition for scalable and investable solutions to problems that lead to or create significant healthcare outcome disparities. [caption…

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