BRIght Futures Contest Lets the Public Vote for Healthcare Innovation

Photo by Alex Lau

UPDATED, November 11, 10:00 a.m.: They proposed, you voted. Brigham and Women’s Hospital announced that the winner of the 2016 BRIght Futures Prize is David Levine and his “Home Hospital” project. The prize money will help further Levine’s goal of creating better care at home.

“For many conditions, home hospital will transform our concept of safe, high-quality, cost-effective care,” Levine said in a statement. “We want to build a better model of care for ill adults in need of hospitalization. Some procedures will always need to be done in a hospital setting, but in certain cases, home may be the best place for a patient to receive care, monitoring and treatment.”

Original story:

You can vote for the future of healthcare through Brigham and Women’s BRIght Futures, a contest that lets the public decide which of three finalists should get $100,000 to help improve medicine and health.

The competition is part of Thursday’s Discover Brigham, a free, open-to-the-public event that allows Bostonians to get to know the Brigham and the research that happens behind its walls. The BRIght Futures winner will be announced at the event.

The three projects up for voting are an in-home “hospital” system that would improve outpatient care, an ultrasound device that would deliver therapy for ulcerative colitis, and a new way to predict Alzheimer’s disease and fine-tune its treatment.

Each finalist has answered three questions about his or her project: what problem it would solve and why it’s important; what the solution is; and how the research would benefit people. Based on those answers, users can vote on who should receive the funding, which comes from philanthropic contributions. Read more about the three projects, then vote for your favorite here.

This year marks the fifth annual BRIght Futures contest. Past winners include tiny drones that target cancer, and a microchip that’s used in HIV/AIDs treatment.

Voting ends Wednesday, November 9, and the winner will be announced at Discover Brigham. To vote, you must be at least 18 years old and have a valid email address. Discover Brigham will be held on November 10 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Register here.