iShare Medical℠ is the winner of the InnovateHER 2016 Kansas City Business Challenge, which was held November 16-22 in Kansas City as a part of Global Entrepreneurship Week. The goal of the nationwide women’s business competition was to highlight innovative products and services that help impact and empower the lives of women and their families.

iShare Medical℠ is a Women-Owned Small Business that provides software tools to help patients and their physicians get access to their medical records. “It’s about getting the right information, on the right patient, to the right doctor, at the right time, every time” said iShare Medical℠ President and CEO Linda Van Horn, MBA.

Women are the caregivers of their families taking the lead role in managing the health and care of themselves and their families. But it is not easy to get access to health care information which is often spread over multiple systems and multiple providers. This is where iShare Medical℠ can help.

“Getting medical information safely and securely to the right person when and where it is needed can help reduce the cost of healthcare, improve care and outcomes, and save lives,” stated Van Horn. “iShare Medical’s software tools help women better manage and automate their families medical care by putting all their medical records from all of their providers in one central location”.

The InnovateHER competition was sponsored by Ewing Kauffman Foundation, Mayor James Office, Central Exchange, Blue Valley Schools CAPS, WE, Women’s Business Center, and Midwest Women’s Business Enterprise Counsel as local sponsors for the U.S. Small Business Administration 2016 InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge and Summit.

At the kick-off of the 2016 challenge, the SBA made this announcement: “The SBA is pleased to announce this second round of our InnovateHER Business Challenge, building on the success of our 2015 challenge where we engaged over 100 organizations and reached over 1,000 entrepreneurs across the nation,” said SBA Administrator Maria Contreras-Sweet. “We have expanded on our pilot InnovateHER Women’s Business Challenge to include a women’s summit that will make the competition more impactful.”

The InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge and Summit kicked off with a series of local competitions of which InnovateHER 2016 Kansas City was one. Through this competition, the SBA sought to find the best products or services that make significant impacts on women and families, fill a need in the marketplace, and have the potential for commercialization. Women control 80% of the purchasing power of the U.S. yet make up less than 5% of the venture capitalists. The InnovateHER challenge was designed to empower investment in products and services for women by women owned and other small businesses.

As the winner of the local competition, iShare Medical℠ advances to the semi-final round. Then the SBA will select up to 10 finalists from the semi-final round who will be invited to the National InnovateHER: Innovating for Women Business Challenge and Summit in March held in Washington, D.C. during Women’s History Month March of 2016. The finalists will pitch their products and ideas to a panel of expert judges and compete for $70,000 in prize money provided by Microsoft.

Click here for more information about InnovateHER 2016.