From VT KnowledgeWorks member company Handshake Media, Incorporated:
Health Tech Hatch (Hatch), a crowdfunding and development resource for entrepreneurs creating innovative health and wellness products and companies, announced the launch on its site of a new crowdfunding campaign for Cognichoice – The App That Helps People Change. Designed for companies in the health care industry who would offer it to the patient communities they serve with common problems – such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, alcoholism or substance abuse – Cognichoice (TM) delivers a personal awareness and social sharing software platform to users in web, mobile web, and mobile versions, based on evidence-based techniques that result in behavior change.
Anne Giles Clelland, M.A., M.S., founder and president of Handshake Media, Incorporated, a VT KnowledgeWorks member company, and founder of Handshake 2.0, originated the concept for Cognichoice and Alexander Edelman, a Ph.D. student in physics at the University of Chicago, is the founding developer. Clelland and Edelman designed the Cognichoice software platform to help people make real changes in their lives – to start doing what they need to do and to stop doing what they know they shouldn’t.
“Behavioral science tells us that healthy changes can happen when we believe we can change, become personally more aware, and get a little help from our friends. That’s exactly what Cognichoice is about,” says Clelland. “We seek more research partners to demonstrate Cognichoice’s efficacy in producing health outcomes. If our crowdfunding campaign on Health Tech Hatch is successful, we’ll have funds to support additional research projects.”
Offered as custom editions of "white label" web browser-based, mobile web, and mobile device software to companies and organizations in the health care industry that are mission-driven and prevention-driven, Cognichoice seeks research partners with which to test the efficacy of the app with multiple patient populations. While the software platform is being used in a pilot study in collaboration with an academic research hospital, Clelland estimates the need for at least two more studies before reaching the tipping point with clinicians who will in turn prescribe the app to their patients.
“Cognichoice’s business model is B2B, scalable, global and targets the healthcare industry, all of which make it an app that shows tremendous promise for success,” says Patricia Salber, CEO of Health Tech Hatch. “Unlike the 95 percent of health apps submitted directly to consumers without testing, Cognichoice is already being used in a pilot study with an academic research hospital and a subset of its obese and overweight patient populations. This important differentiator is why we believe it has the potential to be a successfully crowdfunded initiative.”
Developers of the Cognichoice app, who will run the fundraising endeavor now through February 15, 2013, hope to raise $67,000 to fund additional research studies. The direct ask of the campaign is for money to support the software development needed to create an edition of Cognichoice for each study to continue to help prove the efficacy of the app.
Those interested can sign up for news from Cognichoice and follow the story of Cognichoice's crowdfunding on Handshake 2.0.
About Health Tech Hatch
Health Tech Hatch (Hatch) is an online and mobile resource dedicated to launching early-stage innovations in health care and putting them into the hands of patients, physicians, wellness professionals and consumers. Hatch provides a platform for crowdfunding–a groundbreaking method of raising start-up funds for a new business or product–and expert advice for health tech entrepreneurs (both in the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds) who have brilliant ideas ready to hatch.
About Handshake Media, Incorporated
Handshake Media, Incorporated is a communications technology company specializing in business development services, public relations services and mobile technologies to generate market awareness and market action for its business-to-business and business-to-consumer clients. Handshake Media creates both the method and the message to achieve meaningful connection and strategic results for corporations, organizations and enterprises seeking global customers and clients for their products and services. Handshake Media, Incorporated is based in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA, and is a member of VT KnowledgeWorks.
For more information, please contact:
Anne Giles Clelland
anne@handshake20.com
540-808-6334
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