Mass General Brigham adn Robert Kraft Honor Thrivelink for Innovative Community Health Solution
EVERETT, Mass. – Mass General Brigham (MGB) and the Kraft Center for Community Health this week awarded its inaugural Kraft Prize for Excellence and Innovation in Community Health to Thrivelink, a St.Louis-based institution leveraging artificial intelligence to connect families with vital safety-net programs. Thrivelink was selected from nearly 150 applicants nationwide and will receive $100,000.
The Kraft Prize was launched by Patriots owner Robert Kraft in partnership with MGB, stemming from a belief that access to quality healthcare is essential for all. “Good health is something you can’t buy,” Kraft stated in February, adding, “God forbid if you have a problem, you need access to the right support. And everyone in the community and country, in my opinion, should have that.”
Thrivelink’s platform streamlines enrollment in programs like health insurance, food stamps (SNAP), and utility assistance, addressing a important challenge for both patients and clinicians. Founder Kwamane liddell, a nurse, explained he developed the system based on personal experience.”I really built it for me and my family and the people that I serve,” Liddell said. “We really needed to create something that could help people as we navigate through all these complex systems.”
Dr. Elsie Taveras, executive director of the Kraft Center, highlighted the impact of Thrivelink’s work.”What Thrivelink is doing is picking up on that pain point that is so incredibly vexing for our clinicians, but that is so incredibly helpful to our patients and communities,” she said. “It was really a perfect example of what we want to see scaled to improve community health outcomes.”
Liddell presented Thrivelink’s work to healthcare leaders at the World Medical Innovation Forum at Encore Boston Harbor this week. MGB and the Kraft family are now preparing for the next round of the Innovation Prize winner search,seeking further solutions to improve community health.