Rochester, Minnesota - Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, Mayo Clinic Ventures and AVIA today announced the Mayo Clinic THINK BIG Challenge, a national competition offering awards totaling $100,000 for entrepreneurs with innovative ideas to transform the future of health and health care.

Entrepreneurs can apply for one of two $50,000 THINK BIG challenge awards in these categories:

• Got Health?
  This challenge will focus on healthy people staying healthy and explore areas such as eating healthy, enhancing well-being, monitoring risk factors and engaging in daily exercise.
• I Am Not My Disease
  This challenge will tackle the presumption that people are defined by their disease and explore areas such as access to health data, health literacy and behavior modification.

In addition, Mayo Clinic experts will guide winners for a year as they develop their concepts for market. Apply for the Mayo Clinic THINK BIG Challenge by Saturday, August 15, at transformconference.mayo.edu/think-big.

The THINK BIG competition will culminate on Thursday, October 1, in Rochester, Minnesota, at the Transform 2015 conference, a gathering of industry leaders exploring the future of health and health care. Finalists will compete on stage in a live presentation. A panel of judges will select the winners with input from the Transform audience using smartphone technology.

“The theme of Transform 2015 is ‘People Power Health,’ embracing the shift of the center of gravity from traditional, authoritative medicine to the person,” explains Barbara Spurrier, administrative director of Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation and host of Transform 2015. The Mayo Clinic THINK BIG Challenge catalyzes and celebrates the entrepreneurial spirit so needed to transform America’s health and health care system, says Spurrier.

“Reaching out to the start-up community for ideas to help people optimize their health is a perfect fit for our Transform 2015 conference,” says Spurrier. “People prefer health over health care. The health care system should move from its conventional framework to helping people be the general managers of their own health. Power to the people.”

“The BIG THINK Challenge will connect problem-solvers across the country with Mayo Clinic professionals to collaborate, incubate and implement new solutions to help people manage their own health and change the future of health care,” says Jim Rogers III, chair of Mayo Clinic Ventures.

Eric Langshur, co-founder and CEO of AVIA adds, “The THINK BIG Challenge brings a fresh approach to innovation competitions, and AVIA is proud to partner with Mayo Clinic to support entrepreneurs who are bringing their game to transform health care.”

For additional information about the Mayo Clinic THINK BIG Challenge, visit transformconference.mayo.edu/think-big.