GE names 9 winners of its HealthyCities Leadership Academy Open Innovation Challenge

General Electric ($GE) has named 9 winners of its HealthyCities Leadership Academy Open Innovation Challenge, which is designed to develop population health improvements through partnerships with public and private organizations.

Each of the community winners gets $25,000 toward their projects and are eligible for the final prize of $250,000, which will be awarded following a year of collaborative learning and support, the company said.

“Improving the health of a community is a complex effort that requires collaboration from many stakeholders,” Sue Siegel, chief executive of GE Ventures and healthymagination, said in a statement. “Each of the nine winning proposals brings in local businesses to help governments, foundations and private organizations more effectively develop and implement community health initiatives that truly make a lasting impact.” 

The winners are:

  • Atlanta – Health Promotion and Prevention of Nutrition-Related Disease
  • Burlington, VT – Substance Abuse Recovery and Employment
  • Camden, NJ – Reducing Childhood Obesity
  • Charlotte, NC – Development of Resources on Tobacco, Nutrition and Exercise
  • Goodyear, AZ – Land Use Planning
  • Lebanon, NH – Innovations in Advance Care Planning with Employers
  • Pasadena, TX – Food Security
  • Miami – Diabetes Assessment and Treatment
  • Toledo, OH – Improving the Built Environment

For example, in Atlanta, Wayfield Foods, the HEALing Community Center and Emory University are working together to improve the diets, health and well-being of a local neighborhood by increasing and integrating food and health literacy services in an effort to promote healthy dietary behavior that could change clinical care models to reinforce healthy behaviors to improve health.

And in Miami, West Kendall Baptist Hospital, Healthy West Kendall and corporate sponsor LifeWallet are looking to increase the role of the Healthy Hub, a free, one-stop screening and referral-to-care kiosk. Many of the Hub visitors are at risk for diabetes, and this Miami project aims to help prediabetic patients improve both their clinical and personal health outcomes.