LifeWallet (www.lifewallet.com), in partnership with West Kendall Baptist Hospital and Healthy West Kendall, have been selected as winners of General Electric’s (GE) HealthyCities Leadership Academy’s Open Innovation Challenge.
The collaborative trio is one of only nine winners selected throughout the country — and the only Florida effort to be recognized — who will receive an initial award of $25,000 to implement a program that aims to develop population health improvements by identifying patients at risk of developing diabetes.
LifeWallet aims to inspire healthy activity through mobile engagement apps and, as such, has developed new digital solutions designed to help healthcare providers to identify patients who are at risk for developing chronic illnesses, such as diabetes.
Encounter, LifeWallet’s Health Risk Assessment platform is being used as part of the West Kendall Baptist Hospital Healthy Hub, a free one-stop screening and referral-to-care kiosk. Encounter uses the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 assessment to generate a health score using vitals that include: blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, height, body mass index, age, eating habits, activity levels and family history to identify risk factors for (Type II) diabetes.
This first Hub will be located at Baptist of West Kendall Hospital, encouraging patients and visitors to assess their risk of contracting diabetes. With this information consumers have the opportunity to take charge of their health and possibly prevent the development of diabetes.
“We are proud to be part of this innovative collaboration where clinical excellence and innovative technology come together to transform the way we provide healthcare,” said Norb Menendez, LifeWallet’s founder.
“Identifying at-risk population in our community and providing access to early intervention is part of our mission. Therefore, we are excited to be part of an initiative that promotes population health through risk assessment with the use of our products,” Menendez added.
“We are proud to be named a winner in the GE HealthyCities Leadership Academy Open Innovation Challenge and we are excited that this opportunity will further support our commitment to enhancing the health and quality of life of our community” said Javier Hernandez Lichtl, CEO for West Kendall Baptist Hospital.
“This collaboration with LifeWallet, and the other key community partners on the Healthy West Kendall Coalition, will continue to support our collective vision to create the Healthiest Community in Florida,” added Hernandez Lichtl.
Through this innovative program and with the use of LifeWallet’s technology, patients of West Kendall Baptist Hospital that have questionable scores and are considered high-risk can be connected to the care they need to transform their outcomes.
LifeWallet’s employees are dedicated to making the best products in the market by creating a one of a kind technology region in South Florida that is akin to Silicon Valley.
GE’s HealthyCities Leadership Academy challenged community and business leaders to work together to develop and support new models for approaching population health challenges and ultimately improving the health of working families living in their cities, towns and communities. Winners were announced on Oct. 11 and will have a chance to secure additional funding beyond the initial $25,000 during a yearlong learning collaborative with peer support from experienced community health leaders, preeminent thought leaders and academic researchers in population health, and other business and industry leaders in this field.
For more information, visit www.lifewallet.com.
