Finding new research ideas and creating new ways to fund them, that's the idea behind a new local start-up, WellSpringboard.
The Ann Arbor-based company is creating a software platform that enables patients and other members of health-care community to come up with research ideas. It also provides a facility to support crowd-funding to get the projects underway.
"The current model in the U.S. and around the world is for scientists to have the ideas and carry them out," says Matthew Davis, associate professor of pediatrics & internal medicine & public policy at the University of Michigan and co-founder of
WellSpringboard. "We wanted to see if we could find a new way to bring research ideas forward."
Davis is a member of the three-person team that has been developing the technology since January at the University of Michigan. That effort birthed WellSpringboard, which recently won the prototype category worth $40,000 from the
Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Challenge.
Davis and his team are currently working on further developing the prototype and raising money for the launch of their technology.
"Our timeline is to launch a Beta version in 2014 depending on further funding," Davis says.
Source: Matthew Davis, associate professor of pediatrics & internal medicine & public policy at the University of Michigan and co-founder of WellSpringboard
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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