RootsTech 2016: TapGenes Wins First Place Innovator Showdown

SALT LAKE CITY, UT—Today (5 February 2016) at RootsTech, the world’s largest Family History technology conference, TapGenes, won the Innovator Showdown and walked away with $45,000 in cash and prizes.  The Chicago, Illinois-based, firm helps families identify and benefit from key health traits that exist between generations.

In front of a crowd of close to 10,000 live and online viewers, the six RootsTech Innovator Showdown finalists battled for $100,000 in cash and prizes and bragging rights in the rapidly-growing, multi-billion dollar family history industry.  TapGenes was awarded $20,000 in cash and $25,000 in-kind prizes.

TapGenes provides the tools to identify the genetic thread that ties a family together.  Founder, Heather Holmes, got the idea for TapGenes after her father became very ill and the family struggled with multiple roadblocks to share his family medical history that impacted his treatment, care, and recovery.  Heather made it her mission, if her father got well, to make sure this kind of frightening and desperate episode would not be faced by other families.

Holmes has a background in healthcare marketing. In fact, her entire team comes from various fields of the healthcare profession, including computational genetics.

TapGenes uses the idea of “crowdsourcing” to help families create a more complete and accurate family medical history, online, together. The TapGenes platform identifies medical conditions that may run in their family and helps family members understand what steps they can take to live healthier together.

The six finalists were whittled down from 46 applicants from around the world. They had two minutes to win over the panel of five judges and the audience that their product was the most worthy of support from sponsors.

After each moving presentation, there was a four-minute question and answer period between each contestant and the judges.  After all six presentations, the judges selected the top three winners, and the viewing audience selected the People’s Choice Award winner.

With $50,000 in cash and another $50K+ of in-kind prizes and services from sponsors at stake, the pressure, tension, and energy of this event was tremendous.

2016 RootsTech Showdown Winners

• First Place Judges Choice ($20,000 cash, $25,000 in-kind), Heather Holmes of TapGenes.
• Second Place Judges Choice ($14,000 cash, $15,000 in-kind), Studio (by Legacy Republic), Technology hardware and software for digitizing hard copy photo albums.
• Third Place Judges Choice Award ($6,000 cash, $10,000 in-kind), Twile, a web app that populates a visual family timeline with data and media.
• People’s Choice ($10,000 cash), Twile

This is TapGenes’ second year as an Innovator Showdown contestant.  Holmes credits the great exposure from its RootsTech 2015 booth which focused on FamilySearch data sharing integration, and listening to user feedback as key differentiates in advancing from semi-finalist in 2015 to first place in 2016. Holmes said they plan to use the prize winnings to expand TapGenes worldwide to save lives by making family medical history more available internationally.

“It’s surreal,” said Holmes.  “When you have a vision of something and you don’t know if it’s going to really happen and it does, it’s like a dream. You hope people are going to love it as much as you do. It’s great to get that confirmation that it resonates with them.”

Holmes says they will use the award money and support to help create TapGenes’ mobile app and to expand locally through additional languages.

OTHER FINALISTS

The other finalists included Ancestor Cloud, an online marketplace where those with family history needs connect with those who can fill those needs; JRNL, a journaling app for recording memories as they happen; and The History Project , a fun app forcreating mixed media digital time capsules of a life.

The judges for the final round included Amy Rees Anderson, Managing Partner, REES Capital; David Bradford, Chairman of the Board of FluentWorlds; Dennis Brimhall, former CEO, FamilySearch International; Judy G. Russell, JD , certified genealogist, The Legal Genealogist, and D. Joshua Taylor, accredited genealogist and host of the Genealogy Roadshow (PBS).

The major sponsors of the Innovator Showdown this year include Sorenson Legacy Foundation, Lenovo, IPOP.org., Grow Utah, Utah Technology Council, David Bradford, Woodbury Corporation, Hero Club, and others.

The Innovator Showdown, only in its second year, was designed to foster innovation in the family history industry.

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I am 2016 RootsTech Ambassador and am sharing these press releases on my blog for RootsTech 2016.

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I was so excited for TapGenes to win this year's Innovator Showdown as I have helped Beta test this software for the past year. It was also great to meet Heather in person (instead of email). Here is a group of us visiting with her after the Showdown.

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You can watch the Innovator Showdown here:


#RootsTech

From Surgery to Health

I typically try to release a blog post by Tuesday of each week and at least another post by the weekend. This past Tuesday I was having surgery and with the lingering effects of the anesthesia and the pain medication, I was in no condition to write anything. In a phone call with my mother, I was lamenting my condition and that I wasn't able to write a blog post and my brain was so foggy, what would I even write about. 

She suggested that I write about my surgery and tie it into family history. She made me promise to not post any pictures from my surgery. So, you get to miss out on the bruised incision and the awesome pictures from the laparoscope. My husband also missed taking pictures of me as I came out of surgery and was freezing in reaction from the anesthesia; I was bundled up in a big pile of blankets.

So, now that you have a mental picture of me in a big bundle of blankets, let me tell you a little bit about my surgery. I had laparoscopic surgery to remove ovarian cysts; 20-30 per ovary. I have PCOS - Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. It is where a woman's hormones get out of balance for reasons that aren't well understood. One hormone change then triggers another hormone change, which can trigger more hormone changes. It can cause infertility, depression, irregular periods, extra facial hair, weight gain, trouble losing weight, insulin resistance, and over time it can lead to more serious issues such as diabetes and heart disease. The cause of PCOS is not fully understood, but genetics may be a factor. I had a similar surgery ten years ago when we were struggling with infertility.

My mother suggested that I write in my journal about this operation and my condition. As I thought about some of my other health issues: asthma, allergies, high blood pressure, etc., I pondered over what health issues I may have received genetically, passed down through the generations and what health issues were environmental, based on my own poor choices.

That got me thinking about this blog and also what kind of medical information have I seen in my family history research. Occasionally in some journal/diary entries I have seen health information. But mostly I have seen health information on death certificates; as cause of death or contributory to death. I am intrigued by what my ancestors' died from. (Collecting death certificates ... another project to add to my list.)

How sad is it that a family learns about a health issue at death? My husband's father died of colon cancer just two months after diagnosis. Now my husband and his siblings have regular colonoscopies. Knowing about family health issues can help us to take better care of our own health. My mother, her mother, and her grandmother all have thyroid issues. Every time I have blood work done I request a checkup on my thyroid levels.

As I laid in bed this week thinking about my health issues, particularly the pictures of the fat the laparoscope revealed cushioning my organs; I resolved to take better care of myself. To get the help I need for nutrition and exercise and management of the illnesses I have. I also resolved to document my health for my family.



As I thought about documenting my health, I remembered a new software program from the RootsTech Innovator Summit. It is called TapGenes. Heather Holmes and Emily Chang have created a Family Health Tree. The software is still in Beta (as of the date of this post) and you can also help with the pre-launch beta test as I have been this past week.





TapGenes helps you:
1. Preserve family health information
2. Understand shared health traits & learn how to minimize risks
3. Share your family health history with loved ones

Check out this video introduction.

TapGenes - Your Family's Health Story from TapGenes on Vimeo.

Please visit their website for more information and receive an invitation to beta test their software: http://tapgenes.com/family-health-tree 

For more information about the importance of family health history: 

http://tapgenes.com/family-health-history-something-call-home/

Visit the home page of their website for healthy living topics and to subscribe to a health newsletter:

http://tapgenes.com/

I have also liked them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tapgenes

Today they shared an article on Facebook about the healing affects of knowing your own medical data. Let me tell you, when you see inside your body and you see that your organs are surrounded by fat, it changes something inside you. For me, it inspires me take more control of my health; to get the help I need to make healthy changes that will prolong my life.

TapGenes can help me not only document my family health history but can empower me to take control of my health. 

I believe that living a healthy life can positively affect future generations! It is the best heirloom to share with my descendants!

#RootsTech    #InnovatorSummit    #TapGenes