CHICAGO — Excellent examples of innovation that can help shape 21st century medicine were recognized as the American Medical Association (AMA) announced three teams of health care entrepreneurs selected to share $50,000 in prizes awarded by the AMA's Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge.

In addition to $50,000, winners will gain access to the AMA's network of partners that specialize in strategy and design support for entrepreneurs and startups, including Business Models, Inc., Edge One Medical, Healthbox, MATTER, MU/DAI and Techstars.

The AMA's Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge kicked-off in April and invited all U.S. physicians, residents and medical students to be a positive force for health care and present their best ideas for shaping 21st century medicine. The three winning ideas were selected from a total of 116 solutions submitted to compete in the challenge.

"A passion for transforming health care is a quality physicians and medical students share with many pioneering entrepreneurs," said AMA CEO and Executive Vice President James L. Madara, M.D. "To harness this passion for health care innovation, the AMA is expanding efforts to inspire and support physician-led medical advances, and is proud to support the best new ideas to create a healthier nation."

The three winning ideas in the AMA's Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge include:

First place winner of $25,000
Twiage: Accelerating life-saving care
A secure, interoperable platform that empowers first responders to share real-time patient data with hospitals to accelerate life-saving emergency care.
Team lead: YiDing Yu, M.D.
Affiliation: Internist, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates; Founder, Twiage; Chief Innovation Engineer, Atrius Health 
Location: Boston, Ma.

Second place winner of $15,000
Light line catheter
A catheter that employs a novel visible light phototherapy technology to actively disinfect the device while residing within a patient's body.
Team lead: Mitchell Barneck
Affiliation: Third-year physician candidate, Oregon Health and Science University; Co-founder, Veritas Medical
Location: Portland, Ore.

Third place winner of $10,000
Ceeable: Web-based test technology to detect and diagnose eye disease
A mobile digital health technology to detect and diagnose eye disease including glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration.
Team lead: Cynthia Matossian, M.D.
Affiliation: Owner, CEO and Medical Director, Matossian Eye Associates
Location: Pennington, N.J.

All entries to the challenge appeared in the AMA CrowdChallenge Showcase, powered by MedStartr, where physicians, residents, medical students, nurses, patients, hospital staff, health leaders and investors had the opportunity to review and provide feedback on the ideas. This crowd engagement generated nearly 16,000 online interactions between applicants and reviewers, including votes, follows, interest to pilot, interest to partner, and feedback. 

Finalists in the challenge received strong validation from online reviewers and the three winning teams were chosen for the top prizes based on their final presentations to a panel of judges during a live event held at MATTER, Chicago's health technology incubator.

The AMA's Healthier Nation Innovation Challenge underscores the commitment of America's premier physician organization to supporting health care innovation and collaboration. The AMA is now deeply involved in driving transformative health care innovation as the organization ramps up efforts to bridge the gap between creative idea development and the realities of patient care. From revitalizing medical practices to ensuring that digital health helps provide high-quality patient care, the AMA's ongoing work is striving to forge new paths that expand the bounds of science, enhance patient care and improve the health of the nation.