By Rachel Minnick
INC Research and CISRP hosted the two day “Inspiring Hope” Ideathon on September 27th and 28th at the modern, funky District Hall venue in Boston’s seaport district. The Ideathon was an innovative, think tank type of event, which aimed to raise awareness of the importance of clinical research participation.
Over 70 ideas, from across the clinical trial community, were submitted for the Ideathon and 13 finalist teams were selected to present at the event in Boston. Finalists’ ideas ranged from a crowdsourcing platform to raise awareness of clinical trials and recruit patients, to the development of a Google Doodle to honor women and minorities who have participated in clinical trials, to a pop up retail pharmacy with empty shelves, plus much more.
Ultimately, the “C2: The Clinical Study Change Agent Collective” team was chosen as the winner of this year’s Ideathon. The judges felt that the C2 team’s idea to create a corporate social responsibility program was innovative, impactful, and would have longevity.
The C2 team was awarded a $10,000 prize by CISCRP to invest in developing their idea into a practical solution that would raise awareness of clinical trial participation among the general public, health care professionals, and patients.
To recognize the participation and efforts of all of the “Inspiring Hope” Ideathon Finalists and Winner, 145 life-saving vaccines were donated to children in a developing country by the Greater Gift Initiative, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing global health and clinical trial participation.
This truly inspiring event was made possible by the hard work and dedication of all the participants! A special thanks goes out to our Platinum sponsor DrugDev and our Gold sponsors EMD Serono and WIRB-Copernicus Group for helping us to making this event so successful. We would also like to thank our Silver sponsors E-PatientFinder, Greenphire, Medidata, and QD Solutions as well as our Association partners, ACRP and SCRC, and Media Partners, CenterWatch, PharmaVoice, and Pharmaphorum for supporting this tremendous event. For continued photos, videos, and news/updates on the Ideathon, please visit the website http://www.inspiring-hope-ideathon.com/#ideathon-home.