Hiromi Inagaki, CIO for Whole You.
SAN JOSE, Calif.—Whole You ( www.whole-you.com) has teamed up with crowd-sourcing company InnoCentive to challenge people to come up with innovative ideas to help those with vision or oral limitations.

The company has launched a vision challenge asking for ideas about services vision care providers can offer to optimize a person’s health and well-being. Additionally, Whole You is seeking solutions to incentivize compliance encouraging regular use of oral appliances to motivate patients to effectively manage obstructive sleep apnea. One “solver” who recommends the best idea in each category will be awarded $15,000, the company said.

To provide a solution to one of the InnoCentive challenges, visit www.innocentive.com/pavilion/wholeyou.

Whole You, a subsidiary of Mitsui Chemical based here, is also announcing the formation of an advisory group consisting of professionals with expertise in sensory and physical mobility areas. The advisory group will provide input and guidance to the development of the company’s sensory and physical mobility innovation efforts, while judging Whole You challenge submissions, accordingly. Current members include:

Rupa Balachandran, PhD, CCC-A program director audiology, associate professor department of speech pathology and audiology, University of the Pacific. Ting-Ling Chang, DDS, clinical professor and section chair of prosthodontics at the Division of Advanced Prosthodontics, UCLA School of Dentistry. David Green, social entrepreneur, MacArthur Fellow and Ashoka Fellow. Moshe Lewis, MD, MPH, chief, department of physical medicine and rehab, California Pacific Medical Center, St. Luke’s Campus. Katayoun Omrani, DDS, orofacial pain specialist, Los Angeles Pain Clinic; dentist at the Headache, Orofacial Pain and Sleep Apnea Program at the Cedars-Sinai Pain Center. Frank Spors, MS, PhD, assistant professor at the College of Optometry at Western University of Health Sciences.

“We have identified many sensory and physical mobility challenges that individuals face and believe that an open innovation approach is essential to creating truly ground-breaking products that we know the market needs,” said Hiromi Inagaki, chief innovation officer, Whole You. “The partnerships with our advisory group and InnoCentive demonstrate our commitment to tapping in to great minds that are aligned with our vision—to deliver innovative solutions to for those with sensory and physical mobility challenges.”

Whole You said that all of its partnerships and collaborations, including the open innovation challenges and continually expanding advisory group, will be a part of its “Living Lab.” The company described the lab as “an interdisciplinary innovation network where a broad range of experts—in collaboration with people living with sensory and physical mobility challenges and needs—come together to develop solutions that will optimize health, well-being and experience to unlock human potential.”

Vision Monday reported in November, 2014 that Whole You was preparing to reintroduce and reposition an improved version of PixelOptics eyewear.