School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences Hosts 3rd Annual Shark Tank App Competition

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On December 6, the Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences hosted its third annual Shark Tank App Competition for the PHAR 430 Pharmacy Informatics course taught by Armen Simonian, assistant dean and chair of clinical and administrative sciences, in conjunction with PHAR 420 Pharmacy Management taught by Gregory Reardon, associate professor of administrative sciences.

The competition featured 12 teams of students who pitch their pharmacy related app to a panel of judges and ask for fictitious seed funding, similar to the popular television show Shark Tank.

 “The main focus of this event is not competing for first place,” Simonian stated. “Our goal is for the students to gain knowledge regarding the use of information technology and automation in the practice of pharmacy, and then to be able to demonstrate comprehension of the subject matter through this exciting, active learning exercise. In this sense, I can declare KGI Shark Tank 2017 a total success.”

This year, team License to Pill won the 2017 competition with its product, the Personal Automated Dispensing Cabinet. The product encourages compliance to medication adherence through the automation of mobile notifications and integration with virtual assistants such as Cortana, Siri, and Alexa, along with an intelligent LED equipped waterproof pill box that is automatically filled when attached to a dispenser.

All 12 competing teams gained plenty of real-world experience through building and pitching their products to the five competition judges: KGI President Sheldon Schuster, Lab Launch Founder and CEO Llewellyn Cox, PacketBio CEO Dev Mazumbdar, MedTech Innovator Vice President Jenell Robinson, and KGI Professor of Practice Alan Rothfeld.