Amgen Foundation and Changemakers Launch Global Online Competition to Empower Patients for Better Outcomes

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. and WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Amgen Foundation is supporting an online competition with Ashoka's Changemakers to find the best solutions that elevate patients' voices to improve health outcomes globally.

The Patients| Choices| Empowerment competition is seeking solutions that tap the medical experience, knowledge, and wisdom of current and past patients, health care practitioners, advocates and other key stakeholders to ensure that patients have an active role in their personal healthcare. The ideal solutions are those that empower the patient and provide avenues for informed decisions.

"With healthcare a key concern around the globe, the Amgen Foundation hopes the competition will surface solutions that can give patients the knowledge and confidence to participate collaboratively at every stage of their healthcare," said Jean J. Lim, president of the Amgen Foundation.

The competition takes place at www.changemakers.com/empower-patient where visitors can enter the competition, discuss and share ideas related to patient empowerment, comment on entries, and vote for the finalists. Finalists will be selected by an expert panel of judges based on innovation, social impact, and sustainability. Three winners will each be awarded US$10,000. Entries will be accepted until Sept. 29, 2010 and the winners will be announced in December 2010.

"We look forward to seeing the global Changemakers community, including Ashoka's network of social entrepreneurs, collaborate to build a worldwide network of support for patients so they experience better health outcomes," said Sushmita Ghosh, founder and chair of Ashoka's Changemakers. "This competition will encourage participants to innovate and collaborate, form partnerships, and build a movement that empowers patients."

Following the Changemakers competition, selected entries may be invited to submit proposals to the Amgen Foundation for future funding consideration. The Amgen Foundation will consider awarding up to US$1 million in grants to support promising innovations in patient empowerment submitted by qualifying nonprofit organizations.

About Ashoka's Changemakers

Ashoka's Changemakers is a community of action that connects social entrepreneurs around the globe to share ideas, inspire, and mentor each other.  Through its online collaborative competitions and open-source process, Changemakers.com is one of the world's most robust spaces for launching, discussing, and funding ideas to solve the world's most pressing social problems. Changemakers builds on Ashoka's three decade history and belief that we all have the ability to be a Changemaker. www.Changemakers.com

About The Amgen Foundation

The Amgen Foundation (http://www.amgen.com/citizenship/overview.html) seeks to advance science education; improve patient access to quality care; and strengthen the communities where Amgen staff members live and work. Since 1991, the Foundation has made more than $140 million in grants to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Europe that impact society in inspiring and innovative ways, and those that provide disaster relief efforts both domestically and internationally.

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SOURCE Amgen