SocialWellth, in partnership with MetLife and the Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation at The University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, will be the co-lead sponsor for the 2016 Games4Health Challenge. The MetLife – SocialWellth Games4Health Challenge will enable and foster a cooperative network game developers, health experts, investors, donors, researchers and students from around the world to address health problems in novel ways.
In addition to being the co-lead sponsor of the event, SocialWellth will also sponsor the Happy Fitness Challenge, which is one of five sponsored challenges featured in the competition. Research indicates that increasing physical activity and performing it on a consistent basis is the most effective therapy for most health conditions, including mental health, and is the most reliable way to increase one’s happiness. Yet too few people are engaged in such activity and have begun to seek new digital health technologies to make fitness fun and engaging. Students competing in this challenge will design and create apps and games that increase engagement in fitness.
“As an entrepreneur, I am on a social mission to harmonize health one person, one day and one experience at a time. We are delighted in partnering with MetLife and the Sorenson Center at the University of Utah to sponsor these Challenges, as I believe that these students have the potential to ignite out-of-box gamified apps and experiences for fitness and good health,” said David Vinson, founder and chief executive officer of SocialWellth.
Chris Wasden, executive director of the Sorenson Center, said that “students have a passion for creativity, gaming, and finding ways to apply this to age-old problems like better health. These students are digital natives and are the first generation to have grown up on games and apps, and therefore have a native ability to apply their native capabilities to solve health problems like fitness.”
Registration for the SocialWellth Happy Fitness Challenge is now open, and will close on March 1. To register, visit: g4h.Eccles.Utah.edu
Last year, 150 students from 10 universities and four countries participated in the Games4Health Challenge to win $50,000 in prize money.
“We hope to double the level of participation in 2016 and will be increasing the prize money to $60,000, making this the largest Games4Health Challenge in the world,” Wasden said.
“The University of Utah has the number-one ranked video development graduate school in the country and the number-17 graduate entrepreneurial program at the Eccles School, as well as a top 10 medical school,” Wasden said. “The trifecta makes this the ideal place to sponsor this event.”
The Games4Health Challenge will be held on March 31 at the David Eccles School of Business. For more information, visit: g4h.Eccles.Utah.edu.
About SocialWellth
SocialWellth is a Las Vegas-based digital health company enabling payers, providers and employers by delivering a wide spectrum of white-label experiences and facilitating a connected experience between members and their payers. SocialWellth enables the curation of digital health experiences by leveraging mobile health technologies that allow for integration and aggregation of all digital assets, which improve the overall consumer experience. SocialWellth is headquartered in Las Vegas with a regional office in New York City. Visit www.socialwellth.com to learn more or email pr@socialwellth.com.
About The Games4Health Challenge
The Games4Health Challenge (g4h.Eccles.Utah.edu) is an annual collaboration of the Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation at the David Eccles School, the Entertainment Arts and Engineering Program (an interdisciplinary program between the College of Engineering and the College of Fine Arts), and the Center for Medical Innovation at the University of Utah Medical School.
About Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation
The Sorenson Center for Discovery & Innovation (digitalsandboxu.com) provides experiential learning experience for students from across the University of Utah to help them develop their creative genius. The Center’s Management Consulting Experience Program provides the student associates with opportunities to help client organization innovate their technologies and business models. The Center also helps mentor and coach students with their own inventions, innovations and ventures and provides educational programs and courses in innovation and technology strategy. The Center also runs challenges like the Games4Health Challenge to help promote creativity and innovation.
About Entertainment Arts and Engineering
Entertainment Arts & Engineering (eae.utah.edu) is the overarching term we use to describe the interdisciplinary work between The University of Utah College of Engineering and the College of Fine Arts. This work encompasses the wide array of fields in video game design and development, and students from both colleges work closely together throughout their academic careers. This partnership between disciplines reflects the current state of the interactive entertainment business world, and our students leave the program prepared to work effectively in a team environment. The Entertainment Arts & Engineering program is offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level.
About Center for Medical Innovation
Fueled by a collaborative effort between The University of Utah Health Sciences Center, the David Eccles School of Business, the College of Engineering and the Technology Venture Development Program, the Center for Medical Innovation combines formal education programs, faculty and student project development, and support and facilitation of device development and commercialization. The Center creates a one-stop-shop environment that assists both the novice and experienced innovator through ideation, concept generation, intellectual property, market analysis, prototyping and testing, business plan development, and commercialization. healthsciences.utah.edu/center-for-medical-innovation/index.php