Delaware-based Digital Health Company Wins First Place Award at Doctors 2.0 & You Conference
Wilmington, DE (PRWEB) June 15, 2015 -- CanSurround, a Wilmington-based startup that has created a technology enabled solution that reduces distress and creates emotional well being for people living with cancer, won first place June 5, 2015 in the prestigious start-up competition at the Doctors 2.0 & You conference on the campus of Cité Universitaire Internationale in Paris.
Doctors 2.0 & You is the only international congress providing a 360-degree view of state-of-the-art tools and services linking patients and physicians with all other healthcare stakeholders. Key topics in 2015 included artificial intelligence, augmented reality, 3-D printing, mobile apps and connected objects, serious games, and online communities.
CanSurround was one of seven digital health start-up finalists competing in the contest, which required a live presentation to a 5-person jury who hail from Israel, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland and United States. An estimated 2,000 participants worldwide followed the event live on Twitter (#doctors20).
The award-winning presentation was made by CanSurround co-founder Meg Maley, RN, BSN, and CanSurround advisory board member Liza Bernstein, who, in addition to being a digital health and human-centered design consultant, is also a 3-time cancer survivor and advocate.
“This recognition is very special and exciting for all of us on the CanSurround team,” said Maley. “Each of us has a passion for helping people through intensely difficult chapters in their lives and easing pain and suffering. People can heal without being cured, and vice versa. At CanSurround, peace is our purpose.”
CanSurround is a personalized, innovative web and mobile experience that delivers psychosocial information and intervention via a creative, multi-media technology enabled platform. It engages and helps all of the people who are affected by the cancer diagnosis—the patient, family, friends and co-workers.
CanSurround was incorporated in Delaware in 2013 and in January 2015 began beta testing, creating industry partnerships and validating its business model. The official commercial launch is slated for fall, 2015.
“The market potential for CanSurround is significant,” said Maley, an experienced oncology nurse whose 28-year healthcare career has been devoted to improving the lives of people with cancer. “We believe that, at a minimum, five to 10 additional people’s lives are affected for every one person diagnosed with cancer. And yet, attention to patients’ and their loved ones’ psychosocial health needs is the exception rather than the rule in cancer care today.”
As winner of the Doctors 2.0 & You competition, CanSurround receives the honor of presenting at Doctors 2.0 & You’s sister conference, Stanford Medicine X, in Palo Alto, Ca. on September 27, 2015.
“The activities of five of the seven companies participating in Paris reflect the current worldwide interest in coaching patients,” said Denise Silber, pioneering digital health strategist and Doctors 2.0 & You founder. “We know from patient and caregiver testimonials that the emotional ride through cancer deserves as much attention as the physical ride. CanSurround made a very compelling case for the quality of its solution.”
Maley said that as a result of the live “Tweet-cast,” many physicians and cancer patients have stepped forward (including a physician with cancer) to request participation in the beta testing phase.
ABOUT CANSURROUND
CanSurround is a personalized, innovative web and mobile experience for individuals living with cancer, focused on helping people learn to reduce needless distress and create emotional well being. CanSurround provides information, inspiration and exercises that guide participants toward choices that foster personal growth and healing. By nurturing a trusted relationship with every user, CanSurround helps anyone affected by cancer (patients and their loved ones) to build resilience, gain confidence, better navigate the cancer experience, and let go of some of their fear and worry.
Founded in 2013 and based in Wilmington, Delaware, CanSurround is the first Delaware-based company to become incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation (or B-Corp) under the state’s statute. Called by the New York Times, “capitalism with a little heart,” B-Corp status enables the founders and board members to consider community, employee and social impact as well as shareholder profit when making business decisions.
For more information, please visit http://www.cansurround.com. For a demonstration of CanSurround, please contact Meg Maley at (302) 753-4334 or via email at meg(at)cansurround(dot)com.
Meg Maley, CanSurround, http://www.cansurround.com, +1 302-753-4334, [email protected]
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