Lilly Names HealthVoyager as Winner of Digital Health Innovation Challenge for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)

INDIANAPOLIS, Dec. 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Eli Lilly and Company's (NYSE: LLY) first digital health open innovation challenge, "Transforming IBD Care: Better Disease Monitoring, Management, and Care for People with Inflammatory Bowel Disease," has concluded, with HealthVoyager, an application developed by Boston Children's Hospital and Klick Health, being named the winner. The idea leverages a highly customizable software platform for doctors to create a personalized and immersive educational experience for patients living with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). At Lilly's headquarters in Indianapolis, five finalists presented their digital health solutions aimed at transforming IBD care, during which an expert panel of judges evaluated each idea's impact, novelty, technical feasibility and ability to address long-term needs of people with IBD.

"The submissions we received for this innovation challenge were outstanding. We were impressed by the many bold and innovative ideas leveraging digital technologies aimed at helping people better manage this difficult chronic illness," said Divakar Ramakrishnan, Ph.D., chief digital officer at Lilly. "We selected HealthVoyager as our winner because the solution spoke to our mission of making lives better for people around the world. Taking a patient-centric approach, the platform focuses on educating and informing the patient in a truly individualized and creative way."

HealthVoyager will have the opportunity to potentially co-develop their solution with Lilly and secure $50,000 to further develop their idea.

"We are thrilled to be selected as the winner of Lilly's Innovation Challenge for IBD care, and for the opportunity to improve the lives of people living with IBD," said co-creator of HealthVoyager, Michael Docktor, M.D., pediatric gastroenterologist and clinical director of innovation, Boston Children's Hospital.

"We are proud to be named the inaugural recipient of Lilly's innovation challenge and that HealthVoyager resonated with the judges," said Yan Fossat, principal investigator, Klick Labs at Klick Health. "In developing our personalized virtual reality platform with Boston Children's Hospital, we began with a real clinical problem to solve. We didn't start with a business plan or a technology, just a problem for patients and clinicians. As we finalize clinical validation of our solution, we can move to the business phase."

Lilly plans to conduct future innovation challenges in additional therapeutic areas in 2020.

About Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with the two main types being ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease, is characterized by chronic inflammation of the digestive tract.¹ According to the CDC, approximately 3 million Americans have reported IBD.² IBD is an idiopathic disease caused by the immune system responding incorrectly to environmental triggers, leading to inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract.

About Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly is a global healthcare leader that unites caring with discovery to create medicines that make life better for people around the world. We were founded more than a century ago by a man committed to creating high-quality medicines that meet real needs, and today we remain true to that mission in all our work. Across the globe, Lilly employees work to discover and bring life-changing medicines to those who need them, improve the understanding and management of disease, and give back to communities through philanthropy and volunteerism. To learn more about Lilly, please visit us at www.lilly.com and www.lilly.com/newsroom. C-LLY

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1.  Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America. The Facts about Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Available at: https://www.crohnscolitisfoundation.org/sites/default/files/2019-02/Updated%20IBD%20Factbook.pdf. Accessed July 30, 2019.

2.  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): Data and Statistics. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/ibd/data-statistics.htm. Accessed July 30, 2019.

Refer to: Karen Glowacki; [email protected]; 317-370-1177 (Lilly)

SOURCE Eli Lilly and Company