Palm Coast Times

Flagler County Public Schools issued the following announcement on September 8.

The University of North Florida, along with the City of Palm Coast and Flagler Schools, is presenting the 2021 MedNexus Innovation Challenge open to all Flagler, St. Johns, and Volusia high school students. The MedNexus Innovation Challenge is a team-based entrepreneurship competition that will showcase top regional high school students tasked to pitch their solutions to Florida’s evolving healthcare needs.

New, innovative services and technology-focused solutions are needed to meet the demands of Florida’s growing healthcare systems and to help underserved healthcare areas. The Mednexus Innovation Challenge is a competition that encourages high school students to participate in designing ideas for the future of healthcare through purpose-driven education and to apply innovation, science, and technology to solve real state/local healthcare challenges.

The 2021 MedNexus Innovation Challenge competition will have teams of 2–5 students, ages 16–18, that will come up with products or service ideas to address three main health areas:

• Advancing Telemedicine
• Improving Mental Health Services for Young Adults
• Enhancing Soft Skills in Healthcare

The competition is ideal for any aspiring student considering a healthcare or technology career path as participants will develop leadership, teamwork, and communication skills while receiving personalized coaching from their team’s assigned UNF faculty member and other healthcare and business professionals.

Flagler Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt says, "This is an amazing opportunity for our students and just the beginning of the impact UNF and the MedNexus concept will have locally. I look forward to seeing the innovative solutions our students will propose during this challenge."

“We’re excited that the City of Palm Coast is able to partner alongside UNF and Flagler Schools to offer this incredible opportunity to local high school students,” said Palm Coast Mayor David Alfin. “The importance of the MedNexus concept centers on providing education and career opportunities right here in our City. This Innovation Challenge plays right into the goal of getting young adults interested and engaged in the medical and technology fields right here in our community.”

Teams will receive mentoring by top UNF faculty, opportunities to provide innovative solutions to real healthcare needs within Florida’s First Coast, and a chance to receive cash and in-kind prizes.

Interested students are encouraged to put together a team and research the 3 challenge areas (Advancing Telemedicine, Improving Mental Health Services for Young Adults and Enhancing Soft Skills in Healthcare) to determine where they can adopt a change or improvement.

Applications are open from Aug. 23 to Sept. 19. Decisions of the participating teams will be released by October 1. More information can be found on the UNF website.

Original source can be found here.