MATTER, the premier healthcare incubator and innovation hub, and VSP Vision™, the leader in delivering access to health-focused vision care, announce the launch of the first VSP Vision Innovation Challenge, a global competition that seeks to explore solutions to enhance the patient experience in eye care. Up to five startups will be selected to advance their solutions with key industry stakeholders and pitch their innovations for the chance to win up to $10,000.
How might we enhance the eye care patient experience?
This challenge is open to solutions that address one or more of the following tracks:
Track 1: Empowering patients
Does your solution enable patients to proactively manage their eye health?
E.g. Find-a-provider apps, symptom checkers, digital therapeutics, patient education
Track 2: Scaling access
Does your solution increase patient and provider access to novel eye care solutions and experiences?
E.g. NEMT-for-optometry, portable and handheld devices, smart eyewear or wearables, care navigation
Track three: Elevating care
Does your solution aid optometrists in providing an elevated patient experience?
E.g., Dr. co-pilots, ambient medical scribes, AI-enabled disease detection, audiology integration
A comprehensive eye exam offers a patient more than a diagnosis of eye health. In fact, the eye is a non-invasive window into full-body health, providing valuable insights on more than 270 systemic and chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes and neurological diseases, like Alzheimer’s.
While 8 in 10 people (84 percent) rate vision as the most important sense — and nearly everyone (97 percent) agrees that having healthy eyes is important — only half of people schedule an annual eye exam1.
Chronic vision conditions are also on the rise. In 2022, more than eight million Americans reported a vision disability, a 28 percent increase since 20102. And experts anticipate that common eye diseases, like glaucoma, will be twice as high in 2050 compared to 20103.
As the inevitable demand for vision care accelerates, so too will the need to transform and enhance the eye care experience.
VSP Vision™ and MATTER are launching the VSP Vision Innovation Challenge to:
While applicants can be early-stage or mature, a student startup or corporate spin-off, the solution must be past the idea phase. Submissions will be evaluated with the following criteria:
See the full Terms and Conditions.
MATTER believes collaboration is the best way to improve healthcare. The MATTER collaborative includes more than 1,000 current and alumni 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 they are accelerating innovation, advancing care and improving lives. For more information, visit matter.health and follow @MATTERhealth.
