After presenting before a live audience comprised of funders and judges, the Alliance Healthcare Foundation has selected 6 finalists

San Diego, CA. June 24, 2019. The Alliance Healthcare Foundation has named six finalists who will compete for the foundation’s annual $1 million Innovation Initiative (i2) health innovation prize. These finalists were chosen from a group of 25 semifinalists who each gave three-minute pitches at a May 9 event at San Diego State University’s Tula Community Center.

“This was an inspiring event where we heard pitches from some of our region’s most innovative social enterprises,” said Alliance Healthcare Foundation Interim Executive Director, Elizabeth Dreicer. “Our $1 million innovation challenge seeks this year’s most promising innovation to transform the current health paradigm with its high costs and poor outcomes to one with improved quality, in-creased capacity, and reduced costs.”

After presenting before a live audience comprised of funders and judges, the Alliance Healthcare Foundation has selected the following finalists:

2019 Finalist – Brainleap Technologies, uses eye tracking technology to promote attention, focus and academic outcomes for kids with autism and ADHD.

2019 Finalist – Docfully, brings health providers to homeless people on the street where they are and where they can most safely retain their belongings.

2019 Finalist – Care To Caregiver (The United Foundation), reinvents care coordination by educating and empowering family caregivers, the unsung home-provider heroes.

2019 Finalist – Polaris (University of San Diego), establishes a novel care center at the Monarch School combining social, mental and healthcare services for homeless youth and their families.

2019 Finalist – Urban Street Angels, uses mobile phones and smart-matching to connect homeless youth to individualized social and mental health services.

2019 Finalist – Vizer, uses a personal health app that incentivizes both fitness and altruism by providing meals and other donations to vulnerable people.

 

Judges included Andy Ballester, Co-founder, GoFundMe; Connie Matsui, Past Board Chair, The San Diego Foundation and Board Chair, Halozyme Therapeutics Inc. and Artelo Biosciences; Thomas Kluz, Senior Investment Manager, Qualcomm Ventures; Debbie McKeon, President & CEO, San Diego Grantmakers; and Greg Anglea, Chief Executive Officer, Interfaith Community Services. Ricardo dos Santos, Alliance Healthcare Foundation i2 Journey Guide and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at ResMed Strategy & Ventures and former Senior Director of New Business Development (creation, acceleration and incubation) at Qualcomm, co-hosted the event with Dreicer.

The finalists’ journey began on January 2019, when over 100 qualified applicants were selected to start what is believed to be the largest health prize of its kind in the nation. Since then, finalists’ have participated in almost weekly sessions, hosted by Alliance Healthcare Foundation and led by Dos Santos, where they have received social enterprise and pitch training in preparation for the July 19, 2019 finals. The $1 million i2 competition challenges competitors to identify sustainable break-throughs in health and wellness.

The i2 program had its beginning in 2010 when the Alliance Healthcare Foundation recognized it must inspire innovation to meet its mission as the poor outcomes coupled with increasing amount of dollars flowing to healthcare were becoming an ever-larger portion of the country’s GDP and there-fore unsustainable. The foundation’s i2 initiative is based on the thesis that innovation capital (often high risk, high reward) is needed to transform the current paradigm (high cost and poor outcomes).

“Our commitment to progress calls us to be bold,” Dreicer said, “and today half of our budget is deployed towards seeking, seeding and scaling innovation. In our view, innovations must reduce costs, improve quality and increase access to health and wellness with an emphasis on our most vulnerable.”

As a result of this nearly decade-long effort, the Foundation has established a track record of sourcing, funding and developing scalable social enterprise innovations through the i2 Innovation Initiative. First launched in 2010, the i2 program has awarded $12 million to innovative organizations, including follow-up investment.

According to the Foundation, an exemplar past i2 winner demonstrates the power of the Foundation’s strategy—Text4Baby. The interactive text service matches messages to pregnancy term and is designed to support mom and baby health during pregnancy and after. Initially targeted at high-risk moms and developed in partnership with Champions for Health and Voxiva (now owned by Wellpass), Alliance Healthcare Foundation’s seed investment funded key development and early program eval-uation that helped contribute to the now well over 1 million moms that have used the Text4Baby service yielding over $1 billion in value thru reduced societal costs driven by increased health of moms and babies.

 

Alliance Healthcare Foundation
i2 Innovation Initiative Funding Challenge 2019
The Largest Private Prize Competition in the U.S. for Health and Wellness

About the Challenge. The i2 Innovation funding challenge seeks the best and most promising innovations to advance health and wellness in vulnerable populations in San Diego and/or Imperial counties by reducing cost and poor out-comes and improving quality and increasing capacity.

Eligibility.

• Innovators with transformative ideas
• Leaders of existing or new social enterprises (Social enterprises are defined as a nonprofit 501(c)3, B Corp, or for-profit that advance health and wellness of those in need.)
• The innovation must initially target populations in need within San Diego and/or Imperial counties.

Process. Beginning with a funding forum on January 30, 2019, more than 100 applicants were reduced to 25 semifinalists who competed in a PitchFest on May 9, 2019. By the time the six finalists make their pitches on July 19, 2019 they will have completed six-months of trainings in developing a sustainable social enterprise, pitching, financial planning, and impact analysis and reporting. AHF also works with the winning organization to develop their innovation often for many years following award to help ensure that the innovation achieves its potential.

History. The i2 program has funded more than $12 million in prizes since 2010. Past winners include:

2018 – Multicultural Health Foundation’s Prevention Alliance, ($1M). An alliance of ethnic community organizations that collectively enable access to insurance payments for non-clinical community coaches to lift their community’s health and wellness.

2017 – Somali Family Services, ($1M). A medical education content provider designed to increase immunization rates in the Somali community and beyond.

2016 – Interfaith Community Service’s Recovery and Wellness Center, ($1M). A place for homeless and at-risk individuals to recuperate following surgical procedures, detox and step-down mental health.

2015 – Mental Health Systems, in partnership with North Inland Mental Health Clinic ($75K). A place where patients with serious mental illness receive a flipped model of care centered around their mental health needs with physical health wrapped around.

2014 – Solutions for Change, Solutions Farms ($880K grant + $900K loan). A living and educational campus for previously homeless families with a social enterprise aquaponic farm providing work experience and fresh produce for family residents and the community, including local schools.

2013 – Access Youth Academy, ($550K). An urban squash and academic youth mentorship program designed to promote college education and lift the health and wellbeing of low-income neighborhoods thru participating youth’s network effect on family, friends and neighbors.

2012 – UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic, Wireless Observed Therapy in partnership with Proteus, ($1M). Research and implementing digital medicine (chip inside pill that confirms medicine has been taken) reduces direct observed therapy increases cure rates (initially TB) while decreasing burden on patients, overall system costs and risk to public health.

2011 – 211 San Diego, Community Information Exchange (CIE), ($4.5M since 2011). A community wide person-centered database to enable coordinated health and social services care for the most vulnerable.

2010 – Champions for Health, in partnership with Voxiva (now Wellpass), Text4Baby, ($440K). Text-based messaging targeted initially at high-risk moms to support mom and baby health during pregnancy and after.

2010 – Social Interest Solutions, One-e-App ($1.05M). A comprehensive software service designed to reduce hassles for families and individuals (and supporting service providers) checking eligibility and applying for multiple health, social service and other support programs.

##########About Alliance Healthcare Foundation. We work to advance health and wellness for the most vulnerable in San Diego and Imperial counties through collaborative funding, convening and advocacy.

We believe wellness is a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual, economic and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. Society, community, neighborhood and family are collectively responsible for creating an environment of health and wellness. Wellness is personal and is not the same for everyone. Individuals need information and support to make positive choices for a more successful existence.

We currently operate a portfolio of five programs:

1. i2 is our innovation initiative, also referred to as “venture philanthropy”—based on the thesis that innovation capital (often high risk, high reward) is needed to transform the current paradigm (high cost and poor outcomes) and improve quality, increase capacity and reduce costs;
2. Mission Support—based on the belief that trusting those closest to our constituents and providing core operating support for great organizations will best advance our mission;
3. Responsive Funding—based on the belief that it is important to be responsive to time-sensitive community needs and opportunities;
4. InvestUp—based on the belief that it is important to actively and strategically be looking for ways to meaningfully advance our mission and it is worth spending some or all of our corpus—beyond the earnings off of our endowment—if we can substantively, sustainably and positively change the dynamics; and
5. Impact Investments–based on the thesis that we can activate our investment portfolio to achieve more positive impact.

Our History. In 1982, the San Diego Community Healthcare Alliance (Alliance) created the first Preferred Provider Organization/Network (PPO) in the United States. From 1989 through 1994, the Alliance funded Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF) through profits from its Community Care Network (CCN) operations. In 1994, Alliance sold CCN to a national healthcare company and channeled the proceeds from CCN’s sale into an endowment of $83 million for AHF. That endowment has enabled funding of approximately $64 million (USD) in direct funding and approximately $41 million (USD) from national and local funding partners in San Diego and Imperial counties. Our endowment holds approximately $80 million in assets today, with funding for programs and operations derived from endowment investment earnings.

AHF Media contact:
Carl Nettleton, Nettleton Strategies
P 858-353-5489 E carl@nettstrategies.com