The 40-Year-Old Startup

Huffingtonpost.com: 09/20/2012
On July 16th, 2012, n4a Diabetes Care Center received $100,000 as the winner of the 2012 Data Design Diabetes™ Innovation Challenge. The challenge, in its second year and sponsored by Sanofi US, encourages innovation in addressing diabetes. Several dozen startups applied for the challenge with five finalists, including n4a, receiving $20,000 each.

n4a Diabetes Care Center is the most unusual startup among the applicants because it has been 40 years in the making. The startup is actually a two-way partnership between n4a the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging (seriously) and the National Health Index (NHI). Together, they have real feet on the ground in the form of the n4a’s nationwide field offices with workers that call on the elderly, including a large number of diabetics, and real big data from the NHIs more than decade old database on diabetics and their characteristics. In other words they have real potential to mitigate the progression of diabetes for thousands of people. Read more