Boston Scientific Corporation has announced six finalists in its second annual Connected Patient Challenge, an open competition focused on turning big data into actionable intelligence that optimizes patient care and healthcare efficiency. The event was developed in collaboration with the physician interactive platform, Medstro, to foster meaningful innovation that solves today's multifaceted healthcare challenges.
 
The Connected Patient Challenge received 46 submissions from innovators worldwide, whose concepts were aimed at identifying and closing data-driven knowledge gaps to build new capabilities and treatment paradigms. Entries spanned healthcare categories including patient data management and security, medication adherence, home healthcare, clinical trial support, addiction recovery, among many others.
 
"Boston Scientific would like to thank participants for answering this year's call to unlock digital health in truly disruptive ways using big data," said Dave Knapp, Ph.D., vice president, Corporate Research, Boston Scientific. "All of the ideas exchanged at the Connected Patient Challenge have the potential to address unmet needs in today's healthcare delivery system. The application of data analytics and artificial intelligence has matured significantly for medical applications, and collaboration with early stage innovators in this space is a critical component in our ability to bring novel medical solutions to the forefront and make a difference in patient lives."
 
Finalists will be honored at an event at Google's offices in Cambridge, Mass. on March 9, 2017, when they will present their ideas to a panel of judges, a live audience and fellow participants. The finalists' presentations will also be livestreamed. Two winners will be chosen by a panel of judges and will split up to $50,000 of in-kind services to help them further develop or pilot their ideas.
 
"We were truly encouraged by the level of engagement by emerging developers and healthcare practitioners in this year's Connected Patient Challenge," said Jim Ryan, chief operating officer, Medstro. "We look forward to hearing more from the finalists at the upcoming event, and continuing to be part of a collaborative effort to improve healthcare delivery."
 
The six finalists and brief summary of their concepts are as follows (in alphabetical order):
 

• Heartbeats uses analyses of electrocardiogram signals centered on the rhythm of the heartbeat to support clinical diagnosis.
• Medumo is a mobile and web-based platform that delivers instructions and reminders to patients to help manage their care and facilitate clinical intervention on the part of healthcare providers.
• MouthLab, developed by MultiSensor Diagnostics, measures the user's breathing rate and pattern, blood pressure, temperature, pulse rate, electrocardiogram trace, blood oxygen saturation and lung function through the mouth.
• Pillo is a home healthcare companion that combines artificial intelligence, medication management, and connectivity with peripheral devices to enable proactive interaction and increased patient adherence and engagement.
• StopCKD, a proprietary data validation and harmonization engine developed by Dive Health, consumes electronic health record and Medicare claims data and deploys validated predictive models to identify patients with rapidly declining chronic kidney disease (CKD).
• Tueo Health offers a device-enabled service for asthma management. It uses an internet-connected contactless sensor device in the home, personalized analytics, and a smartphone application to measure basic physiologic parameters during sleep that reveals early changes in asthma control.

 
The Boston Scientific Connected Patient Challenge is also sponsored by Google, PULSE@MassChallenge, MassMEDIC, OptumLabs, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures, Partners HealthCare, Coridea, Redmile group, and STAT.