American Heart Association Using Crowdfunding to Find Next Big Thing in HealthThe American Heart Association is using crowdfunding to find innovative technologies that can assist in improving cardiovascular health across the U.S.

ByCatherine Clifford

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You may not have allowedcrowdfundinginto your heart just yet, but it may very well improve the health of your heart.

The Dallas-basedAmerican Heart Association(AHA) is using crowdfunding, the process of soliciting small donations from a large number of people, to identify the most innovative technologies in the field of cardiovascular health.

In its first-ever Open Innovation Challenge, theAHA will narrow the field of 10 finaliststo three winners by looking at both how much each entry raises via health-care crowdfunding platform MedStartr and what score each innovation receives from a panel of experts, according to a statement from the AHA. The winners will be announced on Feb. 25.

Related:In Crowdfunding, Who is Responsible for Preventing Fraud?

The finalists are looking to introduce everything from amedical-record binder that has an audio recorder embeddedso it can capture doctor's orders to aHIPPA-compliant visual notepad for medical usethat allows patients and doctors to share photos and videos online.

选择的三名获胜者将争夺赠款totaling $25,000 and will be invited to present to investors and healthcare leaders at the AHA Health Science Innovation and Investment Forum in New York City next month. The goal of the campaign seeking innovative technologies is to improve the cardiovascular health of American by 20 percent and reduce the number of heart-disease related deaths by 20 percent by 2020.

"This new challenge drives home our commitment to support new technology and innovative research that can lead to lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. We invite healthcare technology innovators everywhere to be a part of this important competition," said Cheryl Pegus of the AHA, in a written statement.

Related:Another Score for Crowdfunding: Indiegogo Raises $40 Million

Wavy Line
Catherine Clifford

Senior Entrepreneurship Writer at CNBC

Catherine Clifford is senior entrepreneurship writer at CNBC. She was formerly a senior writer at Entrepreneur.com, the small business reporter at CNNMoney and an assistant in the New York bureau for CNN. Clifford attended Columbia University where she earned a bachelor's degree. She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. You can follow her on Twitter at @CatClifford.

Editor's Pick

Related Topics

Money & Finance

Want to Become a Millionaire? Follow Warren Buffett's 4 Rules.

企业家是不能过度指狗万官方望太多a company exit for their eventual 'win.' Do this instead.

Business Solutions

Learn to Program an AI Chatbot for Your Business in This $30 Course

Get back-to-school savings on this AI coding course.

Business Ideas

55 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2023

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2023.

Data & Recovery

Get 1TB of Cloud Storage for Life for $119.97 With This Back-to-School Sale

This 1TB Cloud Storage Solution Is Only $119.97 for Back to School

Business News

Netflix is Hiring an AI-Focused Role—and the Starting Salary is up to $900,000

The streaming giant is looking for a leader in its machine learning department.

Leadership

This Common Leadership Habit Will Harm Your Credibility. Are You Guilty of It?

As leaders, we're always looking for ways to build credibility among peers and employees. But this easy-to-make mistake can ruin it in an instant.