By Nathaniel Luce
Article by Elayne Crain
Citing the Community Transportation Association, Lyft – a rideshare transportation network and the main industry competitor to Uber – posits that 3.6 million Americans miss or delay medical appointments due to a lack of reliable transportation.
Looking for solutions that Lyft could use to fill that transportation gap led them to a partnership with Brookdale Senior Living to create a new service, Lyft Concierge, and to Vanderbilt University to further expand and optimize the new service.
Brookdale Senior Living communities are currently testing Lyft’s Concierge tool, which allows Brookdale employees to request rides on behalf of residents through the Lyft platform.
The partners co-sponsored the inaugural Lyft Healthcare Innovation Challenge, which was open to all Vanderbilt graduate students and co-hosted by three student groups: the Vanderbilt Marketing Association, the Owen Technology Club, and the Vanderbilt Healthcare Club.
Teams presented their solutions at the Wond’ry
“The goal of the case competition was to give students an opportunity to solve Lyft & Brookdale’s existing challenges surrounding elder mobility. The winning team provided the judges a number of original ideas and considerations that they plan to take back to their teams at Lyft and Brookdale,” explained VMA President Andree Smyth, MBA Class of 2017.
The challenge started with a kickoff meeting on Wednesday, March 29, where the case prompts were first shared with the four interdisciplinary teams.
The competition’s presentations then took place on Friday, March 31, at the Won’dry, where each team gave recommendations and answered questions in 20-minute time blocks.
Judges included Sam Nadler and Holden Penly of Lyft, as well as Andrew Castillo of Brookdale.
The winning team, made up of: Thayer Rosenberg, MBA ‘18; Margaret Pan, MBA/MD ‘18; Hanui Moon MBA ‘18; Anna Chandler, MBA ‘18; and Zach Bucuvalas, MBA ‘18, each won a $200 Lyft credit and an opportunity to work with Lyft to execute their ideas, which focused on improving healthcare outcomes among the elderly by lowering costs and increasing access to the Concierge services.
Contact Person: Nate Luce Director of Business News and Communications
Contact Phone: 615.322.3469
Contact Email: nate.luce@owen.vanderbilt.edu
