LIVESTRONG Foundation Launches Competition Designed to Improve Lives of People With Cancer

10 February 2014, 1:00PM
Femme

Today, the LIVESTRONG Foundation is launching a unique global competition to generate innovations that advance its mission of improving the daily quality of life for people affected by cancer now.

Beginning on World Cancer Day, “The Big C competition” aims to initiate an international movement in entrepreneurship by collaborating with social innovators to create financially-sustainable enterprises that will make the world a better place – not only for the 32.5 million people living with cancer globally, but also for the family, friends and caregivers of those facing the disease.

The Big C competition will be produced in partnership with Verb; an Austin-based company that runs social entrepreneurship competitions focused on the planet’s most pressing problems. One of the first and biggest global challenges open to all forms of innovations — programs, services, technology, products — the Big C addresses the critical issues that people affected by cancer are experiencing today as identified in LIVESTRONG's research.

For too long, a diagnosis of ‘the big C’ and facing cancer has been a socially taboo topic even though this disease touches everyone. By naming this competition, ‘The Big C’, we’re taking cancer head on, encouraging a global dialogue and bringing cancer to the forefront of innovation. We want to empower individuals and teams to build solutions for those affected by the disease today,” said LIVESTRONG Foundation President and CEO Doug Ulman. “With this competition, we hope to unite a global community around a common cause and change the way the world lives with cancer.”

Helping cancer patients and survivors deal with the daily struggles that accompany their treatment and survivorship has traditionally been a largely underserved market. A 2010 LIVESTRONG Foundation survey found that nearly all cancer survivors experience continued physical, emotional and practical concerns long after treatment ends. Yet many reported they did not receive help for these needs. Only half of those who experienced emotional concerns received help and just 20 percent of those with practical concerns received assistance.

Moreover, in a century filled with modern innovations and solutions for all kinds of health-related issues, it is notable that out of the approximately 1,980 therapy-specific health care apps for patients and consumers, a mere 77 (about four percent) are geared toward cancer, the leading cause of death worldwide, according to an October 2013 IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics Report. This is just one small example of the way that helping cancer patients and survivors deal with their daily struggles is an underserved market.

The Foundation is seeking to fill that gap by opening The Big C competition to anyone with an audacious product, service or other innovation. The only requirement is that it helps those facing cancer today – people like Sarah, who thought that becoming a mom would no longer be possible after her cancer diagnosis, or Leon who needed more information, guidance and support to beat the disease on his terms.

Learn more about the competition and watch a short video

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