2021 Roche Diabetes Care Innovation Challenge

For people diagnosed with diabetes who are at various points along their journey, managing the risks for complications can be just as critical as addressing the underlying disease itself. Helping people assess the severity of their risk, and monitor and limit risk progression therefore becomes an important element of an overall diabetes management solution.

One of the key challenges for people living with diabetes, and for providers and payers is developing a coordinated plan of attack to assess, monitor and effectively manage these risks alongside the disease itself.

The 2021 Roche Diabetes Care Innovation Challenge is seeking novel tools, services and approaches that address one or a combination of the following tracks:

Track 1: How might we more effectively monitor the progression of risks in people with diabetes in order to delay or stop the onset of complications and comorbidities, and prevent acute hospital admissions?
Seeking novel monitoring solutions, digital biomarkers or engagement solutions

Track 2: How might we empower people with diabetes and their providers to proactively manage multiple and concurrent diabetes-related risks in a way that strengthens vigilance and coordination of care, and that supports a better quality of life?
Seeking novel engagement solutions, dashboards or management/coordination tools/platforms

Track 3: How might we enable smarter and more targeted interventions that slow, stop, or reverse the progression of diabetes-related risks prior to their transition to full onset complications and comorbidities?
Seeking novel digital tools or interventions, engagement solutions or algorithms supporting population-based risk models

The vision of Roche Diabetes Care is to help people with diabetes everywhere in the world think less about their daily diabetes routine so they can experience true relief, day and night. Roche Diabetes Care offers a holistic, patient-centric approach to diabetes management called integrated Personalized Diabetes Management (iPDM). Included in this approach are connected devices, services and digital products to personalize diabetes care, limit the progression of the condition, strengthen healthcare practitioner, patient and payer collaborations and improve outcomes that contribute to healthcare system sustainability.

This staged incubator and accelerator program works to identify opportunities to pilot solutions with Roche Diabetes Care. The exposure to key stakeholders at Roche Diabetes Care as well as connections to thought leaders from the MATTER community creates a unique opportunity for collaboration and to advance a team’s solution.

This is the second year of the program collaboration between Roche Diabetes Care and MATTER — we are building on our success from the 2019-2020 program where 12 semi-finalists and 4 finalists systematically advanced their business propositions. Three of these finalists advanced pilot programs with Roche Diabetes Care, and all accelerator participants benefited from close collaboration with Roche Diabetes Care and MATTER.

An exciting addition to this year’s program is the participation of Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), part of the Duke University School of Medicine — the world’s largest academic clinical research organization.

• Opportunity to engage with Roche experts across commercial, R&D, product development, clinical and strategic insights groups for selected semi-finalists and finalists
• Opportunity to engage with healthcare experts across payer and provider organizations within MATTER network for selected semi-finalists and finalists
• Eight to twelve semi-finalists will participate in a four-week Incubator and gain valuable insights from Roche Diabetes Care and MATTER mentors
• Three to five finalists will be selected to advance to the accelerator phase, and will receive a $5,000 cash award to further develop their solutions
• The winning finalist will receive a monetary prize of $20,000 from Roche Diabetes Care, to be used for further development of the finalist’s solution and the potential to pilot their solution with Roche Diabetes Care
• The winning finalist will receive a free 1-year membership with MATTER

This challenge is open to startups with established proof-of-concept, evidence of product-market fit and business model potential, and those that are actively seeking pilot opportunities.

Read the Roche Diabetes Care Innovation Challenge FAQs for more information.

Click here to submit your application between April 7, 2021 at 12:01am CST and May 31, 2021 at 11:59pm CST.

8 to 12 selected semi-finalists will be notified via the email indicated in their application by June 17, 2021. Semi-finalists will be invited to participate in a required incubation phase, with an estimated 2-3 hour commitment per week. During the incubation phase, finalists will engage directly with mentors from Roche Diabetes Care to assess the value proposition of their solution, its potential impact in the market, and its fit with Roche Diabetes Care strategy and capabilities. Semi-finalist teams are strongly encouraged to take advantage of MATTER workshops and mentor hours during the incubation phase.

The incubation phase will culminate in a virtual pitch day during the week of July 19, 2021 where semi-finalists will present their solutions to executives from Roche Diabetes Care and the MATTER community. Following the event, three to five finalists will be selected to progress to the accelerator phase.

The accelerator phase runs from August 2 to August 23, 2021, with an estimated 5 hour commitment per week, and will culminate in a final presentation during the week of August 30, 2021 that details a pilot opportunity with Roche.

Questions? rdc@matter.health.

View the terms and conditions.

Roche Diabetes Care has been pioneering innovative diabetes technologies and services for more than 40 years. More than 5,500 employees in over 100 markets worldwide work every day to support people with diabetes and those at risk to achieve more time in their target ranges and experience true relief from the daily therapy routines.

Being a global leader in integrated Personalized Diabetes Management (iPDM), Roche Diabetes Care collaborates with thought leaders around the globe, including people with diabetes, caregivers, healthcare providers and payers. Roche Diabetes Care aims to transform and advance care provision and foster sustainable care structures. Under the brands RocheDiabetes, Accu-Chek and mySugr, comprising glucose monitoring, insulin delivery systems and digital solutions, Roche Diabetes Care unites with its partners to create patient-centred value. By building and collaborating in an open ecosystem, connecting devices and digital solutions as well as contextualising relevant data points, Roche Diabetes Care enables deeper insights and a better understanding of the disease, leading to personalised and effective therapy adjustments. For better outcomes and true relief.

Since 2017, mySugr, one of the most popular diabetes management apps, is part of Roche Diabetes Care.

For more information, please visit www.rochediabetes.com, www.accu-chek.com and www.mysugr.com.

All trademarks used or mentioned in this release are protected by law.

At MATTER, we believe collaboration is the best way to improve healthcare. The MATTER collaborative includes more than 300+ cutting-edge startups from around the world, working together with dozens of hospitals and health systems, universities and industry-leading companies to build the future of healthcare. Together we are accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health and follow @MATTERhealth.