By Robert Schultz

October 7, 2016 | Earlier this year, Astellas Oncology launched the C³ Prize, a business plan competition to reward novel, non-treatment and non-medicine ideas that could change the way we address cancer for patients and caregivers.

Five finalists presented their ideas live at Stanford Medicine X last month before a panel of expert judges: Mark Reisenauer, SVP of the Oncology Business Unit for Astellas Pharma US; Robert Herjavec, IT Entrepreneur, Founder & CEO of the Herjavec Group and star of ABC’s “Shark Tank”; Chris Coburn, Vice President of Innovation at Partners HealthCare; and Michael Seres, ePatient-in-Residence and Executive Board Member for Stanford Medicine X. A grand prize winner will receive a $50,000 grant and two runners up will receive $25,000 each. Winners will be named at ESMO Congress which begins today in Copenhagen.

Here are the finalists:

PROSTMATE

Prostate cancer patients can feel alone, so Mark Harrison, with the Australian Prostate Cancer Research Centre, developed PROSTMATE. The free online program connects men with specialists and tailored programs to make patients feel empowered and informed. PROSTMATE provides a private portal where men can track their progress before and after treatment, participate in interventions that will enhance their wellbeing, and share their data for population research that will lead to improved models of support.

OnComfort

OnComfort, a Houston, Texas, based company, offers the world’s first library of stress self-management modules combining evidence-based psychological interventions with virtual reality. Company founder Diane Jooris has been trained in evidence-based stress management techniques and developed a VR headset technology to bring mindfulness into the medical world. Through OnComfort’s immersive modules, patients receive standardized information on the procedure, surgery, or treatment they are facing. OnComfort has developed modules that can be adapted to acute and chronic situations, different phases in treatment, the age of the user, or even diagnosis to end of life or long-term survivorship. The modules can be used by anyone anywhere, at any time of the day

Kevin Linn – Vancouver, British Columbia

Kevin Linn is a Senior Policy Analyst for cancer at First Nations Health Authority in Vancouver, Canada. Linn observed that traveling to and from chemotherapy or radiation appointments can pose challenges for some cancer patients. Chemotherapy side effects make it difficult and unsafe for patients to drive themselves, and often, the responsibility for meeting all of a patient’s transportation needs falls on a select few individuals. In response, Linn combined a web-based application with social media sharing to help patients get to their treatments and improve adherence to cancer treatment plans. The solution goes beyond just providing a ride, even taking into account how a patient is feeling, and making adjustments for their comfort.

Bioinformatix’s Rx&You

Eric Luellen of Boston is the founder of Bioinformatix’s Rx&You, a cloud-based artificial intelligence platform designed to address four distinct problems impacting clinical outcomes today: medication non-adherence, coordination of care, drug-drug interactions, and patient education. The platform remotely monitors patient medication behavior in real-time across their whole regimen, and intervenes when appropriate to help solve medication non-adherence, and pharmacovigilance, and coordinates care across many providers to solve polypharmacy. It also creates large volumes of patient-generated data about medication treatment for Big Data analytics to provide major opportunities for maximizing treatment.

Litebook Company

Larry Pederson of Seattle, Washington, invented a portable light therapy device called The Litebook for people suffering with seasonal affective disorder. The patented technology employ the highest quality white light emitting diodes (LEDs) from Japan that produce a bright, safe beam of light with a specific combination of wavelengths identical to the peak wavelengths of the sun, the same wavelengths that our bodies respond to for health and wellbeing.