Aetna Offering $4.5 Million To Promote Digital Health Innovation

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

The goal of the Healthier World Innovation Challenge is to utilize technology to improve healthcare where it currently is not being delivered.

In an effort to leverage technology to improve healthcare outcomes in vulnerable communities, the Aetna Foundation has announced the Healthier World Innovation Challenge, a $4.5 million initiative aimed at promoting digital health innovation to improve chronic health outcomes in underserved communities.

According to the press release, Aetna will award up to $750,000 a year over three consecutive years to six winners, each of whom will also be aided in implementing their innovations by the Aetna Foundation and partner resources. Aetna has created the Challenge as part of a larger, three-year digital health commitment to help address public health concerns.

The Aetna Foundation website describes the Healthier World Innovation Challenge, writing, “With chronic disease rates at an all-time high among underserved communities, the Aetna Foundation is looking for new ways to accelerate innovation and reach people directly where they live, work and play. At the same time, we know that technology can serve as a powerful equalizer to reach these same underserved communities and improve their health outcomes. Leveraging digital health technology works at the community level to empower change and improve health. We’re committed to raising awareness and fueling change in this rapidly changing arena.”

According to data from the Pew Research Center, 84 percent of low-income adults own a mobile phone, and one in three mobile phone owners have used their phone to access health information. That means that the time is ripe to leverage technology to improve healthcare outcomes and practices.

“We’ve seen the difference health technology can make among individuals and communities. It’s a proven way to build healthier communities and empower people to take charge of their own health,” Garth Graham, M.D., MPH, president of the Aetna Foundation explained in the release.

“Now we are asking organizations to join the Aetna Foundation in creating even more positive ‘disruption’ in the status quo. The Challenge will not only award financial support, but will allow us to work hand-in-hand with organizations that are advancing creative solutions to reduce health disparities and improve health outcomes.”

“Technology is becoming more prevalent, more affordable,” Graham told mHealthWatch. “The question is: how do we use what we know about digital health technologies to really make people healthier?”

Graham told mHealthWatch that his foundation is “looking for people who are working on technologies that are applicable to broad-based groups and who have strategies for using those technologies to truly improve population health.” Furthermore, the foundation is “looking for innovators able to connect people with technology, who are interested in going into under-served, low income communities and figuring out how we can use digital tools to improve health outcomes.”

Applications from non-profit and community organizations with 501(c)(3) status and state and local government agencies must be submitted between Jan. 5 and Feb. 16, 2015. Organizations selected to submit a full proposal will be notified on March 20.

“What we want,” Graham told mHealth Watch, “is to connect with companies that have great ideas who have been waiting for someone to work with. Yes, healthcare can seem very bureaucratic. But we want to show we can go beyond that; that we can connect with communities and make real differences that lead to longer and healthier lives.”