MATTER announces new Restoring Brain Health Innovation Challenge with support from the Lundbeck US Charitable Fund

New initiative aims to accelerate novel insights in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by applying advanced data science solutions

MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub, with support from the Lundbeck US Charitable Fund, a corporate foundation dedicated to responsibly giving back to the community, today launched the Restoring Brain Health Innovation Challenge. The challenge is designed to spur advances in care for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias by applying data science to mine for insights from the disparate sources of data available today.

For years, data analytics has been used in healthcare to fuel faster and more accurate diagnoses, inform decision-making, personalize treatment, improve patient care and outcomes, lower costs and more.¹ With recent advances in the use of big data and generative artificial intelligence, more organizations are exploring new ways to apply these modern data science tools to address persistent healthcare challenges.

One of the key challenges in advancing care for the growing population living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is the aggregation of meaningful insights from a wide range of disparate sources of raw data, including electronic health records (EHRs), personal health records, patient portals and health-related smart phone apps, in addition to large amounts of unstructured data, strict data privacy and security regulations and a variety of data formats.^1,2

Overcoming these challenges to glean useful, harmonized population insights could help improve the quality of life for the more than six million Americans, and 55 million people worldwide, who are living with Alzheimer’s disease or related dementias.^3,4

“Healthcare data is uniquely challenging to work with, but mining this data holds the promise of meaningful new insights that can transform the outlook for some of today’s most urgent unmet needs,” said Steven Collens, CEO of MATTER. “The Restoring Brain Health Innovation Challenge is designed to support innovators with ideas and solutions that address healthcare’s data hurdles to ultimately advance care in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.”

The 10-week, cohort-based accelerator will provide startups with mentorship, exclusive resources and an interactive curriculum to help them build their solutions and accelerate their growth. Participants will also have the opportunity to pitch their solutions to investors, health systems and others at a final showcase on January 30, 2024. Each participant will graduate from the program with actionable next steps to further advance their solutions over the subsequent six months with a free MATTER membership.

“MATTER’s Restoring Brain Health Innovation Challenge is an exciting opportunity to employ advanced data technologies to uncover critical new insights about the large population living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias that have been difficult to extract from disparate data sources,” said Molly Poarch, head of the Lundbeck US Charitable Fund. “The innovative concepts resulting from MATTER’s challenge could serve as the catalyst for new innovations, solutions and ultimately, an improved outlook for so many people and their loved ones, supporting our mission to restore brain health so every person can be their best.”

For more information and to apply to the Restoring Brain Health Innovation Challenge, please visit matter.health/challenges/2023-restoring-brain-health-innovation-challenge/.

About MATTER

At MATTER, we believe collaboration is the best way to improve healthcare. The MATTER collaborative includes more than 800 current and alumni startups from around the world, working together with dozens of hospitals and health systems, universities and industry-leading companies to build the future of healthcare. Together we are accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health and follow @MATTERhealth.

About the Lundbeck US Charitable Fund

The Lundbeck US Charitable Fund is an independently managed nonprofit 501(c)(3) committed to responsibly and appropriately supporting organizations and programs that share our dedication to restoring brain health. The Lundbeck US Charitable Fund is wholly owned by H. Lundbeck A/S, a global pharmaceutical company specialized in brain diseases. For more than 70 years, Lundbeck has been at the forefront of neuroscience research, tirelessly dedicated to restoring brain health so every person can be their best.

¹ “The Role of Data Analytics in Health Care,” University of Pittsburgh, 2021.

² “Big data in healthcare: management, analysis and future prospects,” Journal of Big Data, 2019.

³ “Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures,” Alzheimer’s Association, 2023.

⁴ “Dementia statistics,” Alzheimer’s Disease International, 2020.

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