Last month in BCC news we discussed what was coming up in the Innovation DHB Competition. To briefly recap, the competition seeks to identify the Palmerston North Hospital staff with the most promising innovative ideas and put them through a series of development workshops, finishing with a presentation to judges followed by an awards ceremony.
Since then the competition has really gotten underway with participants who have brought a wide range of ideas to the programme. These include new app and software ideas as well as new device ideas. The nine finalists of the competition have worked through the three validation evenings run by BCC, with the aim of building a business case to pitch to the judges. This was done with a focus on clearly identifying the problem being addressed while measuring the scope and cost of the problem, then defining the exact solution, its costs and its scalability. The competitors were also coached on using visual aids and storytelling to deliver a compelling pitch.
Next up for the DBH competition is the Dragon’s Den style pitch night on the 17th where three judges will decide who has the most compelling business case. The judges for 2015 are Ken Clark, who is Chief Medical Officer at MidCentral Health, Michele Coghlan who is Director of Nursing at MidCentral Health , Rick Gain who has a background in pharmaceuticals and is a member of Manawatu Angel Investment Group (MIG) and Angela de Zwart who is the Clinical Advisor at Orion Health.
On the 25th of this month a week after pitches, the Innovation DHB Competition will wrap up with a final awards night where the winner of the trip to the 2016 Health 2.0 Europe conference held in Barcelona will be announced. Dr Hong, Sheng Chiong, who won a Highly Commended at the 2015 New Zealand Innovators Awards, will deliver a keynote address on the night.
Looking Back at 2014’s Winner
Last year’s Innovation DHB winner was Mike Perry, a respiratory physiotherapist at Palmerston North Hospital. For patients with restrictions in lung function, one of the courses of treatment is to use a Positive Expiratory Pressure (PEP) device. However, these devices can be prohibitively expensive as not all patients get the same level of positive results. Mike’s device introduces a novel design and manufacturing process that minimises cost through reduced part count while still maintaining functionality.
Recently Perry completed a development prototype with a Fielding design and development company and will soon begin to test its functionality. .
For more information and to follow the competition, click here
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