For a second year running, J&J Impact Ventures, an impact investment fund within the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, funded the MIT Solve Health Access Prize to empower entrepreneurs around the world to implement innovative solutions tackling some of the greatest health challenges. This year’s Health Access Prize was awarded to four teams who participated in the Health in Fragile Contexts Challenge, which asked: How can we build resilience in health systems and maintain access to care despite destabilizing events?
The winners selected were entrepreneurs who are responding to this call to action with innovative solutions that expand access to quality healthcare and build more resilient health systems.
The four 2023 Health Access Prize winners were presented with their awards on September 18 at Solve Challenge Finals 2023 in New York, hosted by MIT Solve, and we’re excited to introduce you to them!
1st Prize: Rology – Kenya and Egypt
The Solution: A teleradiology platform that aims to improve health outcomes through remote diagnostics and AI-driven insights.
Due to factors such as radiologist shortages across Kenya and Egypt, many patients do not receive accurate or timely disease diagnoses. Rology uses an AI-assisted teleradiology platform to increase hospitals’ ability to match the radiology scans with remote sub-specialized radiologists who can provide their expert interpretation and radiology reports, which are critical for making effective treatment plans.
At the same time, Rology enhances local radiology capacity by providing training opportunities for local healthcare professionals and radiographers to improve the radiology protocols and workflows. By addressing the shortage of radiologists and creating new pathways to access, Rology is helping to reduce the burden on local health systems.
2nd Prize: Elythea – Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and the United States
The Solution: A machine learning platform that can detect pregnancy complications as early as the first visit and allow obstetricians to intervene in advance.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 80% of maternal deaths are avoidable with early intervention. Elythea’s AI-driven platform leans into this statistic, helping obstetricians predict pregnancy complications such as postpartum hemorrhage, emergency C-sections and hypertensive eclampsia by analyzing relevant demographic and clinical risk factors and flagging high-risk patients to their health professionals. Elythea’s platform provides obstetricians with critical information to intervene early—as early as the first trimester—and make the necessary care plans to prevent maternal deaths. Being able to predict pregnancy complications enables both providers and patients to prepare for emergencies and help improve maternal healthcare outcomes.
3rd Prize (tie): Briota – India
Solution: AI-driven technology to support early and more accurate diagnosis of chronic respiratory diseases in resource-constrained settings.
Briota designed and developed India’s first point-of-care portable respiratory diagnostic kit, which can be used by healthcare workers in primary healthcare settings to conduct screening and diagnostic tests to help detect chronic respiratory diseases early and with more accuracy. Along with the PFT in a Box™ with a digital spirometer and impulse oscillometer, Briota developed mobile apps that use an AI-driven algorithm to read and interpret results for accurate screening and diagnosis. The solution is integrated under the National Program with a 10-point comprehensive package which includes community survey, remote technician and pulmonologist support and medicine availability, among others, giving providers a more affordable and accessible way to manage chronic respiratory diseases at health and wellness centers, clinics, hospitals and other points of care throughout India.
3rd Prize (tie): Savyn – Canada and the United States
Solution: An evidence-based digital trauma therapy platform using neuroscience to support community mental health.
Getting mental healthcare is difficult for many individuals due to long wait times and provider shortages. Savyn is a digital platform especially designed for patients living with post-traumatic stress disorder and trauma, building new affordable pathways for them to receive evidence-based trauma therapy and treatment. The platform gives patients eight weeks of 45-minute neuroscience-based therapeutic exercise sessions, based on EMDR therapy, that help them navigate and process their trauma, held both in the brain and physical body, for holistic healing.
Congratulations to all our 2023 winners! We are honored to support these companies and the powerful ways they are leveraging advanced technology and innovation to strengthen their healthcare systems and increase access to essential health. We look forward to next year’s outstanding entrepreneurs.
You can also read more about our inaugural 2022 winners
here.