Innovation And Creative Disruption In The Corporate Health & Wellbeing Industry Despite COVID
Last month, April 2020, an epic event took place. This event was PitchWell, which attracted top innovators in the employee health and wellbeing industry to compete for $100,000 equity funding, access to Archetype Solutions expert resources and world-class ecosystem. In addition, these businesses had the opportunity to leverage WELCOA’s expansive network of health and wellness professionals and organizations.
The event was initially planned to be in New Orleans. That was no longer an option because of COVID, so it was moved to a virtual event and $10,000 in sponsorship proceeds were donated to the New Orleans Business Alliance COVID-19 Relief Fund which benefits New Orleans gig economy workers who have lost their source of income.
Even with the pivot to online, this first-of-its-kind competition for the corporate health and wellbeing industry attracted over 350 companies. These change makers, shape shifters and those in the front lines developing the next generation of employee health and wellbeing tools, products and services showed up in droves. The top 6 most innovative early-stage companies that competed included:
I had the honor of joining a 6-person panel of experts inclusive of Iain Fitzpatrick, Chief Strategy Officer of Archetype, Margaret Dolan, President & CEO of Launch Tennessee, and Shawn Orenstein, Managing Principal of OneDigital Health and Benefits.
The Top Innovator award at PitchWell 2020 went to Mytonomy, a novel CRM for health engagement. At the heart of Mytonomy’s CRM is the Patient Experience Cloud which enables healthcare’s digital front door. Leveraging an advanced data model, Mytonomy engages members through high-quality video content, surveys, and virtual communication tools. Mytonomy’s video library includes over 1,500 originally produced micro-learning videos, which results in comparatively high engagement rates (80-90%) in historically poorly engaged populations. It is like “Netflix” for healthcare.
This inaugural event highlights the entrepreneurial spirit and energy that exists in this unprecedented time. The live stream format exceeded expectations and the event had over 200 attendees from across the globe. The one thing we can see happing despite the global pandemic is that entrepreneurs, leaders and investors are continuing to persevere.
Another recent example of this was the XR Intelligence, a Reuters Event, that took a herculean effort to turn the physical XR Immersive Enterprise event into a digital experience. All can agree that this was the right decision because more than ever, our industry mustn’t stop sharing, inspiring, learning and collaborating. The virtual expo was set up and more than 3,000 enterprise executives, innovative leaders, transformational pioneering solution providers, startups and other enthusiasts of healthcare and wellbeing were all highlighted first day.
One of the most impactful sessions was “How Covid-19 is Positively Impacting XR Applications in Healthcare” presented by Walter Greenleaf, the VR/AR Expert from Stanford Virtual Human Innovation Lab. It was exciting to hear that innovation with VR/MR/XR is continuing to make a difference in our health and wellbeing. His highlights included;
We are at a unique place and time with COVID-19, but now more than ever the health and wellbeing industry needs to adopt new innovation and technology and we can work together to educate the market, creating real change and improving lives.