Media releases

Finalists announced for Westpac's Innovation Challenge

 

11 July 2016

 

Westpac today announced the five finalists for its Innovation Challenge, a platform for entrepreneurs to put forward innovative new solutions to further improve Australia's healthcare sector.

 

Westpac's Head of Healthcare, Leon Berkovich, said this year's Innovation Challenge attracted around 250 applications from start-ups and entrepreneurs across Australia in just three weeks.


"The quality and number of entrants has been fantastic, with ideas ranging from mobile health management applications to hospital and practice communication tools, data management solutions and modern diagnostics capabilities," Mr Berkovich said.


"I'd like to thank all of the entrepreneurs for submitting their ideas and congratulate this year's finalists on being recognised among such a strong field of applicants. It's fair to say there's no shortage of innovative ideas on how to leverage technology to further improve the healthcare industry."


This year's five finalists are:

  • OnCallogist: Clinical task management mobile app that empowers clinicians with real-time information to see patients faster and provide better patient care. OnCallogist aims to disrupt the pager space, without disrupting hospital workflow.
  • Surgical Partners: Financial management platform for medical practices and their doctors. Surgical Partners integrates any practice management system with any accounting system, and splits doctors' billings into practice share, and doctor share, in real-time.
  • Cyph MD: Communications platform for secure data-sharing between stakeholders within the healthcare industry. Cypher MD leverages blockchain technology to streamline communication and data-sharing across the entire healthcare network.
  • Aipoly: Artificial intelligence (AI) responding to the needs of the 285 million visually impaired people worldwide.  Its first product, Aipoly Vision, is an app for smartphones containing AI that describes objects in real-time.
  • SkinView: Converts a smartphone into a device that allows anyone, anywhere to obtain an automated diagnosis of skin cancer with the option to send it into the cloud for dermatologist confirmation.

 

The finalists will each make a pitch to a panel of leading business representatives who will decide the overall winner at an event on 19 July. The competition will award one winner a $40,000 cash prize and further assistance from Westpac and BlueChilli to help take the winning idea to the next level. 

 

A People's Choice prize of $5,000 will also be awarded to one finalist based on popular vote.


"With the five finalists announced, voting is now open for this year's People's Choice award. This is everyone's opportunity to learn more about our finalists and cast a vote for the innovation they think is the next big thing in healthcare," Mr Berkovich said.


Detail on the finalists and access to vote for the People's Choice award is available at http://bluechilli.com/votenow


Colette Grgic, General Manager of Innovation at technology startup accelerator BlueChilli, said: "It's been an absolute pleasure to work with the finalists during the startup bootcamp. These entrepreneurs have each taken a unique approach to improving productivity in healthcare and, looking at the range of technologies they are using, it's safe to say there are exciting times ahead for the industry." 


Now in its third year, the Westpac Innovation Challenge has previously unearthed entrepreneurs with innovations for the agribusiness and property sectors.