(Fergus Falls, Minn.) – Greater Fergus Falls (GFF) is pleased to announce that their sponsored ILT Academy participant, Data Scientist Dr. Shauna Overgaard, will be wrapping up the 20-week program with a virtual Pitch Night. Overgaard represented Fergus Falls in the West Central MN cohort and attended ILT Academy’s 2021 Lean Start-up Series, a 20-week interactive, immersive program that introduces key concepts in the Lean Startup methodology to new and early-stage entrepreneurs in Greater Minnesota. The community is invited to attend this virtual event on Thursday, May 27th, at 6 pm.
Overgaard develops and applies artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for biomedical discovery, precision medicine, and precision health. As founder of Clarity – Applied Intelligence, her work and research specialize in machine learning within the realm of neuroinformatics. Her journey through ILT has prompted her to appreciate and address a crucial gap in personalized healthcare: the field’s inability to provide patients with understandable interpretations, unrestricted access, and ownership of their data. “There exists a massively scalable opportunity to leverage and translate artificial intelligence algorithms to enable individual patients to make informed decisions and control their health,” Overgaard states, emphasizing that patients already seek real-time information about their health. As Overgaard worked through ILT’s framework for vetting business ideas, she was asked to evaluate the problem, the customer’s solution; and identify any unfair advantage she and her team could leverage as she forms her unique value proposition. As required by ILT, Overgaard has researched, prepared, and collaborated on ways to critique and build on her idea. Using first-principles thinking she has broken down the problem into the fundamental elements. “It’s unreasonable to expect our patients to curate and synthesize data generated by their many elected health apps, fragmented personal genetics subscriptions, and documented physician recommendations. Healthcare AI is developing exponentially, and we have traction in providing pipelines for actionable insights to physicians. Physicians have limited contact and provide recommendations to patients at varying time intervals. On a minute-by-minute basis, patients alone make the decisions that ultimately determine their well-being.”
Supported by ILT, Overgaard is currently building a minimum viable product using multiple sources of passive data collection, data from wearable devices, such as smartwatches, insulin pumps, and ECG monitors. “The hype in healthcare is patient-centered care. How should we prioritize healthcare decisions amidst all of the noise? The needs of the patient come first. One needn’t be a data scientist to appreciate that if we can be empowered with personalized, well-explained insights delivered directly to us, we will recognize and ultimately exercise our own control to make wise decisions. Fundamentally, autonomy support allows us to drive the course of our survival. As a patient, I have my own motivation to survive, and I make my own decisions. My need is to be equipped to make good decisions and have my care centered around what is uniquely me. I have evidence to support that I am not alone in appreciating this truth,” states Overgaard. Follow her story on LinkedIn @ Clarity – Applied Intelligence.
Overgaard celebrates and thanks ILT Academy, her founder cohort, and Greater Fergus Falls, for the opportunity to participate. “ILT has taught me the importance of remaining open-minded and agile in business. The experience has reshaped my perspective on the requirements of a solid value proposition. As founders, the thorough and replicable framework we learn through ILT ensures that we can take any idea and run it through this standardized process. Understanding how to do this over and over again means that we can continue to generate, evaluate, and improve ideas and collaborate with and support other entrepreneurs. ILT Academy is creating a network to grow and scale best practices in early-stage entrepreneurship. This has been a tremendous experience, one that I recommend to all early-stage founders.”
ILT Studios Founder and CEO Nick Tietz said, “ILT Academy is focused on providing the spaces, places and developing a community of entrepreneurs for all types of founders including Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC), LGBTQ+, women and veterans,” he continued, “We’re committed to helping underestimated entrepreneurs in underserved regions create new high-impact ventures and bring jobs and talent to the Central Minnesota regions.”
The community is invited to virtually attend the Founder Showcase, which offers an opportunity to hear a 5-minute startup story/.pitch, connect with community members, stakeholders and potential investors, and to celebrate the completion of the academy. Register for free at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ilt-academy-west-central-founder-showcase-virtual-event-tickets-15432416 0719, and be the first to hear about the new and innovative business ideas launching in Greater Minnesota.
Launch MN is an initiative funded by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (MNDEED). Through this initiative, ILT Academy was established to make skills training more accessible to outstate entrepreneurs.
Press Release provided by Greater Fergus Falls
Photo: Dr. Shauna Overgaard
Photo credit: Jeremy Petrick Photography
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