Lyfebulb and CVS Kidney Care® Announce Finalists for 2022 Innovation Challenge in Kidney Disease

NEW YORK and WOONSOCKET, R.I., March 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Lyfebulb and CVS Kidney Care®, a CVS Health® (NYSE:CVS) company, are pleased to announce 10 finalists for the 2022 Innovation Challenge: Accelerating Innovations in Kidney Disease to Improve Health Equity and Outcomes.

"Treatment options for those with the most advanced stages of chronic kidney disease haven't changed in decades, and the ideas brought forward as a result of this challenge are energizing," said Jesse Roach, MD, Senior Medical Director, Health Equity at CVS Kidney Care. "For too long, outdated treatments have failed to meet the needs of many, and we look forward to hearing from entrepreneurs on how we can improve kidney health for everyone, especially historically underrepresented populations."

The finalists, who were co-selected by the Lyfebulb and CVS Kidney Care® teams, brought forward an array of strategic, creative, and scalable concepts to make kidney care more understandable, accessible, and equitable. The potential impact on patients and their care partners, as well as the feasibility and sustainability of innovations in the market, were considerations in the selection of the following finalists:

• Sathya Elumalai, Founder & CEO at Aidar Health
• Chet Bennett, Founder at C. Alan Foundation
• Bilal Naved, Co-Founder and COO at Clearstep
• Sharron Rouse, Founder & Executive Director at Kindness for Kidneys International
• Linda Lusis, VP of Strategic Partnerships at Mozzaz Corporation
• Jonathan Politzki, CEO at Nephra
• Dr. Minnie Sarwal, Founder & CEO at Nephrosant
• ­­Dalton Shaull, Co-Founder & CEO at OmniLife
• Sarah Lee, Co-Founder & CEO at Relavo
• Shireen Abdullah, CEO at Yumlish

­­"We are very excited by this inspirational group of finalists who are not only committed to improving health outcomes for kidney-disease patients, but also to improving their access to high-quality care," said Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD, Founder and CEO at Lyfebulb. "They demonstrate a high degree of creativity and the potential to successfully break down the barriers kidney-disease patients face so that they may receive the care they need and deserve."

The finalists will be joined by industry leaders spanning business, venture capital, technology, and health care industries, as well as public officials driving change for a two-day summit in Austin, Texas. Each finalist will present their solutions to an expert panel of judges on May 18-19, 2022, and one winner will be awarded a $25,000 prize to further the growth of their company.

To learn more about the Lyfebulb-CVS Kidney Care® Innovation Challenge, visit Lyfebulb.com.

About CVS Kidney Care®
CVS Kidney Care® is reimagining the future of kidney health – because patients deserve care that helps them live on their own terms. Our unmatched patient insights, grounded in the connectivity of CVS Health ®, link data and clinical knowledge to create a personalized approach that breaks down barriers to care, including systemic barriers that have led to disparities in kidney health. Our end-to-end approach is flexible and customizable to help support a truly patient-centered experience. No matter where people are in their kidney-health journey, we help them connect to an integrated network of options that make care easier to understand, more accessible, and suited to their needs. 

We are changing kidney care as we know it, because the more than 37 million Americans living with chronic kidney disease deserve more than twentieth-century solutions. Learn more at cvskidneycare.com.

About Lyfebulb
Lyfebulb is an innovation accelerator that bridges the gap between patient communities and the healthcare industry by working directly with patients and care partners to generate insights and build new solutions to reduce the burden of living with chronic disease. Lyfebulb operates across 12 disease states and counting. For more information, see Lyfebulb.com, TransplantLyfe.com, and IBDLyfe.com, as well as Lyfebulb's Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Karin Hehenberger's LinkedIn.

For more information:

CVS Health®­­ Contact:
KC Sledd
Senior Manager, Corporate Communications
Phone: +1 401 328 5361
Email: [email protected]

Lyfebulb Contact:
Karin Hehenberger, MD, PhD
CEO & Founder, Lyfebulb
Phone: + 1 917-575-0210
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Lyfebulb