Announcing the Winner of the Lyfebulb-Orexo 2020 Innovation Challenge in Substance Use Disorders

Dear Lyfebulb Community:

In partnership with Orexo, we just concluded our first virtual Innovation Challenge in substance use disorders (SUDs). We’d like to thank all participants, attendees, and our panel of judges, who each contributed meaningfully to make this event a memorable experience.

Rohan Dixit of Lief Therapeutics is the 2020 Lyfebulb-Orexo Innovation Award winner. The company has developed a wearable device that helps reduce stress and anxiety (significant co-morbidities of SUDs) in real time using heart rate variability biometric tracking. Rohan will receive a $25,000 monetary prize to further the growth of his company in this space. The jury was impressed by Lief's method of addressing co-morbidities of SUDs by enabling people to listen to their bodies with biometrics, which allows proactive, yet simple, interventions to avoid relapse.

Nine finalists were selected to compete at the Innovation Challenge on October 15, 2020. The finalists, each motivated by personal connections to addiction & recovery, pitched their company’s solution to an esteemed jury panel that represented both industry and patient perspectives. Throughout the Challenge, three select advocates, who are Lyfebulb Ambassadors in the recovery space, connected with the finalists through group discussions and a guest speaker presentation focused on breaking the stigma of addiction.