Home Article Crowdsourcing platform launches challenge to develop better oxygen solution

Crowdsourcing platform launches challenge to develop better oxygen solution

By HME News Staff

Updated 10:00 AM CDT, Thu June 24, 2021

BETHESDA, Md. – HeroX, a social network and crowdsourcing platform, has launched the “Air You Wear Challenge” on behalf of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. The challenge seeks to develop more portable, easy-to-use options for patients on supplemental oxygen. Patients who use oxygen consistently say oxygen should be lighter and more portable. “This is the perfect opportunity to tap the global network to solve a problem that affects so many people,” said Christian Cotichini, CEO, HeroX. “The options currently on the market don’t live up to our innovative capacity: oxygen cylinders are heavy and cumbersome, and oxygen concentrators have limited battery life, precluding some patients from being able to use them.” The two-phase challenge will award a total of $500,000 in prizes. In Phase 1, up to eight teams proposing the most compelling and impactful solutions will each receive up to $50,000 to help develop a working prototype and/or demonstration of their proposed approach during the Phase 2 development period. At the end of Phase 2, up to three teams will be awarded first, second and third prizes of $60,000, $30,000 and $10,000, respectively, for the best prototypes/demonstrations.