hearX announced as finalist in Accenture Innovation Index Awards

The Index is designed to provide a national benchmark for innovation, providing businesses and policymakers with an authoritative and objective snapshot of the state of innovation within their organisations and in South Africa.

In partnership with the Da Vinci Institute and TransUnion, Accenture applies best practice research approaches to provide a confidential customised innovation diagnostic report that identifies each participant’s innovation strengths and weaknesses; benchmarks their innovation within their industries; and presents strategies that may help them gain competitive advantage. The programme culminates in the Accenture Innovation Conference where the findings of the Index are presented and the winners are announced. The Index also allows participants to submit concepts for consideration in the Innovation Conference showcase and awards.

Entrants are required to complete an in-depth questionnaire designed to assess innovation from idea generation to diffusion. The Innovation Index framework used for scoring innovation excellence provides an indication of the level of innovation maturity across specific innovation domains.

Innovation is defined as a new way of doing things that adds value. It is the translation of a good idea into a tangible outcome (financial, social or environmental).

Participation in the Index Awards is open to all South African organisations—small, medium and large; listed or non-listed; NGO; public or private—with a commercialised product, process or service.

hearX submitted its hearing test solution hearScreen™, a world first clinical smartphone hearing test solution with the aim of providing healthy hearing for everyone, everywhere. It uses low cost, commercially available hardware, together with a custom developed software application. Clinically validated by the University of Pretoria, this revolutionary, time-efficient, low cost mHealth solution is gearing up to become the frontrunner in the mHealth space.

Hearing loss is a leading contributor to the global burden of disease with one in seven people affected globally and more than 3.2 million in South Africa. Hearing screening is the first step in identifying hearing loss so that the appropriate interventions can be initiated to alleviate the negative impact. Currently, hearing test equipment is prohibitively expensive and inaccessible to the majority of South Africans. hearScreen™ was launched as a solution to this challenge. The winners will be announced at the Accenture Innovation Index Conference in Johannesburg on 17 October which hearX Group will attend. The annual conference is attended by executives, small business owners, government policy makers, institutional decision-makers, heads of academia and opinion shapers, who came to hear an outstanding line-up of international speakers talk about how innovation can disrupt, change and drive organisations and countries.