What’s an innocentive? Hint: This one’s worth $60,000…

You provide the innovation. 

We’ll provide the incentive.

You might call it an innocentive.

UnitedHealthcare is offering $60,000 to the winner of it’s “Breakthrough Health Tech Challenge,” just announced at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show.  The Challenge taps the creativity of innovators worldwide to bring forth new ideas to use common consumer devises, including video game systems and mobile phones, to improve the health system and help people address chronic conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.

I’ve written a lot in the past about just how much UnitedHealthcare emphasizes the importance of innovation in improving the health of our nation.  But if there’s one thing we have learned about innovation, it’s that the best ideas to better serve people don’t always come from executive board rooms.  Instead, great ideas may come from a nurse who develops a solution to meet her patients’ needs, a technology guru who develops a video game to help his dad lose weight, or maybe a health teacher who is seeking a new way to engage his students.

Our innovation challenge is about listening to ideas from people from all walks of life, and turning the best ideas into meaningful action that makes a difference in people’s health.

And if it happens that your idea is the best one, we’ll reward you with $60,000.

Details of the challenge and a submission form can be found at www.ceshealth.com.  Ideas will be accepted through April 8, 2013.

For more on how UnitedHealthcare is using consumer technologies to improve the health of the community, watch Jeff Alter, chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare Employer & Individual, discuss UnitedHealthcare’s technology initiatives at the Consumer Electronics Show in the video below.