HITLAB is Excited to Welcome Julia Cheek, Everlywell, and Wendy Diamond, Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization, to the 2020 Challenge

Industry: Healthcare

These luminaries will join our judges and finalists to determine the winners of the HITLAB Women’s Health Tech Challenge.

New York, NY (PRUnderground) October 13th, 2020

HITLAB’s Women’s Health Tech Initiative is thrilled to welcome two impactful leaders to the 2020 Women’s Health Tech Challenge. Julia Cheek, Founder and CEO at Everlywell, will deliver the keynote address, and Wendy Diamond, Founder and CEO of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO), will participate as Inspirational Leader.

The Challenge—on Thursday, November 19—will also feature innovator pitches from this year’s finalists. The event’s mission is to bring together innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups, to propose novel concepts to fulfill or mitigate the unmet needs of women all over the world.

Access to Insightful, Life-Changing Lab Tests at Home

Everlywell’s founder Julia Cheek believes everyone deserves access to affordable lab tests and digitally enabled results with actionable next steps. Each year millions of Americans avoid traditional lab testing due to high or unknown costs, inconvenience, or a combination of both. Based in Austin, Texas, the company connects individuals to certified labs, offering a suite of validated tests that evaluate cholesterol, heart health, fertility, STIs, Lyme disease, testosterone, thyroid function, and more. Everlywell also offers one of the only FDA-authorized at-home sample collection test kits for COVID-19 and it features the first at-home test kits for fertility, high-risk HPV, and indoor and outdoor allergies.

Giving Girls a Chance

WEDO’s Wendy Diamond is a social entrepreneur and humanitarian who started her organization to empower, celebrate, and support women in business worldwide. It began as a movement to bring awareness and give a chance in life to the 250 million girls living in poverty globally, while simultaneously inspiring and empowering the 4 billion women on the planet. WEDO’ mission is to ignite a network of women leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs to initiate startups, drive economic expansion, and advance communities around the world.

Women’s Health: A Core Issue

Both Cheek and Diamond recognize that women’s health issues are under researched and underfunded. Despite projections that the FemTech industry is expected to grow to US$50 billion by 2025, the reality is that the full spectrum of women’s health concerns is still drastically underrepresented within healthcare.

“Healthcare is better with women at the forefront – it’s less prone to issues like medical racism and socioeconomic inequity; with a stronger focus on quality care that leads to better patient outcomes,” said Julia Cheek, Founder and CEO of Everlywell. “I founded Everlywell because I wanted to make sure everyone had access to affordable, convenient, life-changing lab tests. The operative word there is ‘everyone’. Not just those with health insurance, a steady job, and extra money in the bank. We need healthcare for single moms and their families; for shift workers, for those in rural communities, for people with mobility issues or who lack access to transportation. We need healthcare for LGBTQ2S+ individuals. We need healthcare for the overworked, underpaid, and overlooked. We need healthcare for women, by women – and the best time to start is now.”

Anyone concerned about women’s health is welcome to attend the 2020 Women’s Health Tech Challenge. Innovators from across the FemTech ecosystem are also invited to apply by Monday, October 19, at 11:59 pm. There is no fee to enter your novel concept and the networking opportunities alone could pay dividends: selected innovators will pitch their ideas to a global audience of pharma and life science executives, healthcare providers, and investors. A complete list of challenge prizes and bonus opportunities are included below, sponsored by WHT partners Goodwin Procter LLPHorizon Government AffairsNursing Innovation HubWomen of WearablesRhia Ventures, and Digital Dx Ventures.

Visit the Women’s Health Tech Challenge website (hitlab.org/wht) to attend, partner, or get your application underway and submitted by October 19.

Challenge Prizes and Opportunities

  • Grand Prize—US$10,000 from Goodwin
  • 2nd Place—Up to US$20,000 worth of in-kind legal services from Goodwin
  • 3rd Place—Health Innovation Alliance Award

1-year membership to Health Innovation Alliance
Up to US$15,000 of in-kind services including direct government affairs consulting and strategic counsel from Horizon Government Affairs

  • 4th Place—NIHUB Women’s Health Tech Innovation Award 

1-year premium membership in Nursing Innovation Hub
Up to 10 hours of in-kind services of strategy, design, or consulting valued at US$5,000

  • 5th Place—Women’s Health Tech Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award 

Media exposure package valued at up to US$1,000.00 provided by Women of Wearables

Bonus Prizes and Opportunities

  • Rhia Ventures Award—US$5,000.00 from Rhia Ventures for a company with innovations in maternal health care or contraception that are addressing the needs of underserved communities (women of color, Medicaid, low-income women).
  • Digital Dx Ventures Award— US$2,500.00 for Best Digital Health Diagnostic Innovation from Digital Dx Ventures

About HITLAB

HITLAB is an impact-first organization that offers digital health research, teaching, and advisory services to improve health delivery around the world.

At HITLAB, we believe technology and health can work together to improve the quality of health delivery and healthcare worldwide. We use rigorous research and evidence-based methods to identify the best digital health solutions for each of our partners.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Press Contact

Name
Justtin Bulova
Phone
212-543-2000
Email
Contact Us
Website
https://hitlab.org/wht

Image Gallery