The second annual, Fall Columbia-CareOne Healthcare Innovation Challenge has determined its winners for 2022. Congratulations to Ivan Tchatchouwo ’20 TC, founder of The Zone and Heather Nantes ’17 BUS, founder of Epsom-It who both tied for first place. The pair will split a $25,000 prize pool.
The CareOne Challenge sought to mobilize creators, makers, and innovators in healthcare delivery, patient empowerment, medical devices, EMR management, healthcare for an aging America, and medical services and many more categories. And just like last Fall semester, the Columbia-CareOne Healthcare Innovation Challenge, part of the Columbia Venture Competition, was run in partnership with Columbia Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Design.
Former Division I NCAA basketball player, Ivan Tchatchouwo ‘20TC knows all too well what it means to suddenly lose your physical ability to play the game you love while, at the same time, you lose your dreams and mental resilience.
Across the US, 64% of college dropouts leave university due to mental and emotional health issues, costing our educational system $8 Billion annually. Tied for First Place in the Columbia-CareOne Healthcare Innovation Challenge, The Zone is attacking this problem head on.
The Zone tracks Mood for their users, so the student-patient can track changes and contributing factors over time. The platform provides a direct path to campus mental health resources. Finally, The Zone users leverage the Zone Explore page to access meditations, study prep tools, and affirmations on the go. The Zone is already booking revenue and signing deals with top university sports programs across the US.
Tied for first place, Epsom-It brings the 400+ year healing history of Epsom Salts to consumers with its magnesium sulfate-based formula. In fact, Epsom-It’s original concentrated formula is 30 times more concentrated than the traditional Epsom Salt bath.
