Bahamian Rhodes Scholar Leads the Way in Caribbean Future-Health Innovation

#Nassau, July 2, 2018 – Bahamas -The HEALinc Enterprise (HEALinc), an innovation incubator led by founder and CEO, Dr. Desiree Cox, hosted its first annual “Future-Health” Hackathon with a HEALinc-University of Central Florida iCORPS event to kick off the six-week (plus) future-health entrepreneurship educational program. This unique, immersive experience, which was held from May 11 – 14 aboard Royal Caribbean’s Empress of the Seas, brought together entrepreneurs, postgraduates, thought leaders and faculty from the Bahamas and the United States who are pioneering the design of innovative healthcare technologies. The event was held in partnership with the University of Central Florida (UCF), led by Dr. David Metcalf and Dr. Tom O’Neal, and the National Science Foundation (iCorps) and included three days of exploration, networking and collaboration to help this talented group accelerate the progress and commercialization of their healthcare projects.

“The global healthcare industry is moving faster than ever, and the Bahamas, the Caribbean and Latin America are falling behind,” said Dr. Cox. “Through fast-paced, all-encompassing events like this one, we’re cultivating a spirit of enterprise and crowd-collaboration among creatives and developers from our region whose ideas might never come to life without proper mentorship, access to resources, and support.”  During the boot-camp style cruise, the participants were exposed to the key aspects of building a start-up including leadership skills, design-thinking, business-model canvas development, finding the ‘product-market’ fit of their innovation, serial prototyping, and more.

“Our goal at HEALinc is to activate 1 billion healthcare creatives by 2028,” Dr. Cox continued, “and from the level of imagination and talent that we saw on display during the Hackathon cruise, we’re off to an incredible start.”

The Future-Health Hackathon begins with a 6-week intensive program with University of Central Florida (UCF)-iCORPs being the main HEALinc educational curriculum partners.  HEALinc participants join students and entrepreneurs from all over the world based at UCF-iCORPs during this period to develop their prototypes and refine pitches for investors as they seek to obtain seed funding for their start-ups.  The 6-week intensive is followed by a 48-hour HEALinc-IBM ‘Tech Hack’ where successful entrepreneurial leaders come together with developers to build out an app or tech component of their prototype.  Finally, entrepreneurial leads will have an opportunity to launch their Start-Ups at the 2018 inaugural HEALinc GlobalFuture-Health Innovation Summit, which will be held in The Bahamas, 7th-9th October. (www.healincfuturehealthsummit.com)

Release: HEALinc Enterprise

Photo Caption: Dr. Desiree Cox (third from left), the first Bahamian Rhodes Scholar and CEO & Founder of The Healinc., groomed entrepreneurs and tech talent during the 2018 Healinc Future-Health Hackathon cruise including Jamaican-American medical student Brittney Eason and Bahamians Robin Lightbourne and Mike Fountain.

Contact

For more information, please contact:

Dr. Desiree Cox                                                                                       Maya Nottage

Tel: (242) 376-2511                                                                                Tel: (242) 808-9783

Email: dr.desireecox@gmail.com                                                        Email: mayanottage@gmail.com

The HEALinc Enterprise (HEALinc) is a one-of-a-kind future-health innovation incubator focused on the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region of the Americas. We are the Y combinator for the Caribbean and the future-health innovation testing laboratory for the world. Based in Nassau, Bahamas, we are empowering creatives, tech talent, researchers, health intrapreneurs, and entrepreneurs from LAC countries and diaspora communities to create the future of our region’s health. Our network brings together top talent, thought leaders, developers and the best-of-the-best in future health forecasting and tech to help start-ups and Small Growing Businesses (SGBs) bring paradigm-shifting innovation to life.  Our goal is to create a movement of 1 billion Healthcare Creatives by 2028. Learn more about how we are creating the future of healthcare at www.theHEALinc.com.