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Health Literacy Innovation Challenge
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Health Literacy Innovation Challenge
Do you have an idea for transformative technology that can improve health literacy and knock down knowledge barriers that lead to health disparities?
Sponsored By
DETAILS
Timeline
Who can participate?
This Innovation Challenge is an internal HSC challenge open to all faculty, staff and students at the UNT Health Science Center. Teams comprised of up to four members are welcome and encouraged, but not required.
Process
Tell us your idea.
Register
Claim your HSC Next profile by clicking the SIGN UP button in the top right corner of this web page. HSC faculty, staff and students can sign-up with their HSC single sign-on (SSO) credentials. If you are a returning user to the HSC Next platform, simply log-in with SSO by clicking on the LOGIN button.
Review Resources
Explore the HSC Next platform to discover resources that can help you think about or develop your idea. You can find Tools to help you develop your idea, Stories that will inspire you to think like an entrepreneur, Connectors that offer innovation programming and even Events that will challenge you to grow as an innovator. Check back often as the resources are frequently updated.
Submit Your Idea
Begin telling us about your idea! Click the START button on this page and answer a few questions. You can save your work and return to it later. After logging back in, you will find your draft submission on your profile page. Once you’ve finished, click SUBMIT to enter your idea in the Challenge.
What's YOUR solution?
In recent decades, advancements in medical technology and scientific research have resulted in improvement of health for most Americans. Despite improved health outcomes for the population as a whole, many socially disadvantaged groups experience disproportionate rates of injury and illness as well as limited access to health information and medical care. These health disparities—preventable differences in health outcomes—have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A key driver of health disparities is health literacy, the ability to find, process and understand basic health information and services to make appropriate health decisions. Impacts of low health literacy include:
- Low rates of treatment compliance
- Ineffective management of chronic pain and disease
- Less use of preventative medicine resulting in increased unnecessary emergency care
- Longer hospital stays and more hospital re-admissions
- 4x health care costs overall
- Higher mortality rates
HSC's core value to Serve Others First compels us to create innovative solutions that address health disparities and improve opportunities for all to achieve optimum health. HSC also believes in the power of entrepreneurship to bring such solutions to our community. This Health Literacy Innovation Challenge is your opportunity to address knowledge barriers and improve health outcomes through an entrepreneurial model.
Examples of solutions through which entrepreneurs could transform our community might include but are not limited to:
- Novel processes for the delivery of care
- Low-cost tools or technologies that promote health-seeking activities and empower individuals/communities to avoid health-risk behaviors
- Innovative products that improve disease self-management, care coordination and communication between health care providers and their patients with limited health literacy and/or language barriers
- Engaging educational media (software, videos, games and materials) that promote health empowerment and disease prevention using culturally appropriate, evidence-based methods
- Innovative tools, materials, aids and technologies for classroom instruction of K-12 and undergraduate students as well as the general public
- Products that inform, empower and motivate individuals, families and communities to set quality of life goals and sustain health gains
- Technologies for evaluating interventions that have the potential to reduce health literacy barriers
So, take the challenge! How would you innovate to eliminate knowledge barriers to health care?
References
Chamberlain, Callie. "Understanding Our Care." Until it's Fixed, Optum, September 27, 2021.
UnitedHealth Group. Improving Health Literacy Could Prevent Nearly 1 Million Hospital Visits and Save Over $25 Billion a Year. October, 2020.
How to submit
Start your submission by clicking on the START button on this page and answering a few questions.
Contact
If you have questions about this Challenge, completing your submission or using this site, please reach out to hello@hscnext.com.
Terms & Conditions
Values:
This Innovation Challenge will be conducted in accordance with HSC core values:
- Serve others first – encourage growth, well-being and success of each other and people we serve
- Integrity – uphold the highest ethical standards
- Respect – treat everyone with dignity and compassion
- Collaboration – work together to achieve shared goals
- Be Visionary – create innovative solutions in the pursuit of excellence
General:
The UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth (“HSC”) is sponsoring the Health Science EdTech Innovation Challenge (“Challenge”) to stimulate ideas for innovation in the virtual education experience for postgraduate students at a health science center. Ideas with the most promising potential for innovation will advance to a competition where innovators with the top ideas will be awarded funding, resources and mentors to help them take the Best Next Step with their ideas. For background information, submission deadlines and other Challenge details, see the specific challenge website here.
The Challenge will be managed by the HSC Next team using the online platform at https://www.hscnext.com (“Platform”). The Challenge, and your participation in it, is governed by these Innovation Challenge Terms & Conditions (“Terms”). Participants agree to be bound by these Terms upon submitting a Challenge entry through the Platform. HSC may revise these Terms at any time during the course of the Challenge to provide additional information or to improve the quality of the Challenge. Unanticipated issues that arise may require modifications to these Terms. HSC reserves the right to revise these Terms as it, in its sole discretion, deems necessary. All participants will be notified of revisions in a timely manner.
Please send any questions about this challenge and/or feedback regarding these Terms to hello@hscnext.com.
Common Qs about this Challenge...
Who is this for?
Can I submit more than one idea?
How do I get started?
Access the resources tab for Tools and Stories that have been curated to inform and inspire innovation. Click the "Start" button on this page any time to submit your idea.
Can I work with a team?
What is the time commitment?
Who will be judging the entries?
When will I hear back?