The CIMIT Prize for Primary Healthcare calls for technologic innovations with the greatest potential to support and catalyze improved delivery of healthcare at the frontlines of medicine.

Technologies of particular interest are those which promise improved access to medical care, leveraging the skill of caregivers, automating routine tasks, increasing efficiency of workflow, supporting patients with chronic disease and their family caregivers, increasing compliance with care-protocols, reducing medical error, or augmenting the physician-patient relationship.  Innovations are sought for use in any setting, not just that of the medical-practice office. The full range of venues of daily living, from home to work to shopping and beyond, present attractive opportunities for innovation, which can enhance the quality and continuity of primary care. 

The tangible reward for the ultimate winners will be monetary prizes to the winning individual students or student teams to support their further work in implementing or actualizing their prototype innovations.  Specifically, up to ten students finalists will be provided with $10,000 each to develop a final full submission; and the first, second, and third place winners will be awarded $150,000, $100,000, and $50,000, respectively.  In addition, CIMIT will provide national recognition to the winners and can offer help to facilitate the further development or successful implementation and possible commercialization of the innovations. 

This CIMIT Prize is made possible because of a generous gift from the Gelfand Family Charitable Trust, which will support the competition annually over the next five years.

* The funds will be transferred to the student(s) home institution for appropriate dispersal.

2009 CIMIT Prize for Primary Healthcare Winners, their schools and projects are as follows:

$150,000 First Prize:
John Moore, MIT
Title: “Collaborative Technology for Primary Care: Teamwork anywhere at any time.”

$100,000 Second Prize:
Matthew Connor, Princeton University
Title: “iAbetics Web 2.0 diabetes management system.”

$50,000 Third Prize : 
(Two projects tie and will split its $50,000 award)

Richard Henrikson, University of California, Berkeley
Title: “Versatile, rapid and inexpensive molecular detection through modular aptazyme-mediated signal transduction in a microfluidic device.”

Ming Jack Po, Columbia University
Title: “Therapeutic gaming for autistic children.”

Read announcement.

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The 2009 ten student finalists:

Brant Chee, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Title: “Automation extraction of drug regimens and outcomes from health messages.”

Winnie Cheng, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: “My medical elephant; Improving medical history reliability.”

Matthew Connor, Princeton University
Title: “iAbetics Web 2.0 diabetes management system.”

Sanna Gaspard, Carnegie Mellon University
Title: “Development of a diagnostic instrument for early-stage pressure ulcers (bed sores).”

Richard Henrikson, University of California, Berkeley
Title: “Versatile, rapid and inexpensive molecular detection through modular aptazyme-mediated signal transduction in a microfluidic device.”

Sarah Jeffords, Texas A & M University
Title: “Digital camera-coupled ophthalmoscope.”

Erez Lieberman, Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology program
Title: “iShoe Insole.”

John Moore, MIT
Title: “Collaborative Technology for Primary Care: Teamwork anywhere at any time.”

Ming Jack Po, Columbia University
Title: “Therapeutic gaming for autistic children.”

Kurt Qing, Northwestern University
Title: “KMC ApneAlert.”

 

Evaluation criteria for full proposals will be:

Innovation:

• Originality (disruptive technologies are sought, unconstrained by the forces of current fee-for-service reimbursement patterns, but offering better outcomes)
• Leverage (applying innovations from fields outside of healthcare)

Impact:

• Impact (some measure of the scope of the impact)
• Practicality (e.g., materials, cost, power requirements if relevant, “fit” with medical culture)
• Accuracy (compelling case that false positives or negatives will be manageable, if the technology is diagnostic, or, of the technology is therapeutic, that the care will be safely and accurately delivered)
• Generalizability (flexibility to fit different venues of practice and clinical scenarios)
• Safety (contribution to reduction of current risk, and compelling case made that new risks would not be introduced)
• Patients’ viewpoint (identification of patient demand and/or need, with data, if possible, from the literature)
• Simplification of work processes
• Cost-effectiveness

Implementation:

• Time-to-market (identification of obstacles and appropriate tactics for surmounting them)
• Use of Funds (the monies will be used in ways that lead to a significant advance)
• Acceptance (clear explication that the innovation will contribute to patient comfort and convenience, while improving or speeding positive outcomes

 

 

Instructions on this page should be followed by the student finalists to submit a full proposal for the CIMIT Prize in Primary Healthcare.

Full proposal applications are due May 31, 2009 by 12 midnight local time.

All applications must use the CIMIT web-based submission system. The system will be open for submissions beginning May 22, 2009. The URL for the submission site is: https://precisionconference.com/~cimit. All finalists have been registered with the system.  Log-in and click on "new submissions" and then "Make a new submission to CIMIT …" to access the online forms for CIMIT Primary Healthcare Prize.

To input your proposal online, you must update the pre-populated application demographic fields and upload a single file in a composite pdf format (less than 10MB in size) containing the following documents:

A title page, including:

1. Project title
2. Name and contact information for the student team leader (email, phone, mailing address)
3. Names of all student team members, including department and level of education
4. Names, titles, and institutions of all non-student collaborators AND role in project (e.g. mentor, clinical advisor, technical advisor, etc.)
5. Name, title contact information for the responsible institutional official, signature, and date (i.e. an "Institutional Official” is an individual with authority to accept responsibility for funds and to signoff on behalf of the applicant institution)
6. Name, title and contact information for department head or faculty mentor

Body of the project text (no more than 20 pages in length). Sections of the project text should include:

• Aims
• Specific goals
• Methodology
• Description of any prototype and/or pilot data
• Comparative advantages and disadvantages with respect to other know technologies or approaches considered
• Advantages over typical current primary care practices
• Summary of conclusions

Additional pages of detailed figures (drawings, photographs, graphs, etc.), if needed, up to 10 pages in number. If your composite pdf exceeds 10 MB, please contact cimitprize@partners.org before the deadline to receive instructions for submission.

Video attachment is allowed IF useful in conveying function or results, no more than 10 minutes in length! Any videos you may have of your final projects can be posted to YouTube (or any other video hosting site) and the link included in your final submission. Please opt for the "private" posting option rather than the "public" posting. Any questions about posting to YouTube can be directed to Mike Young: mwy.mail@gmail.com.

Additional instructions:

• All text must be in a readable font (at least Arial 11 point) and margins must be at least 0.7 inches.
• You may replace a loaded pdf with a newer version until the deadline for submission.
• Announcement of the three top winners will be made on June 30, 2009. Those three will receive $150,000, $100,000 and $50,000, respectively.
• Email cimitprize@partners.org with questions.