Carey Student Receives “Product Developer of the Year” Award

Johns Hopkins Carey Business School student Jeffrey Morelli (Flex MBA, Health Care Management concentration, 2021), co-founder of a company at the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic response in New York City, has received a “Gold Stevie® Award in the 2020 Product Developer of the Year award category of the American Business Awards®.

In addition to being co-founder, Morelli is vice president of Technology Delivery for Inspiren (iN), a three-year-old, nurse-led technology company dedicated to helping hospitals and elderly care facilities reduce adverse events, ensure staff safety and satisfaction, and improve infection control.

Over the past few months, iN has been deployed at the epicenter of the pandemic, working with a major New York City hospital, providing its staff with critical contact tracing data through advanced analytics, as part of Inspiren’s Infectious Disease capabilities.

“We remain steadfast in partnering with front-line staff to fight COVID-19 with our innovative product capabilities,” said Morelli.

Morelli’s award illustrates his exemplary product vision to revolutionize patient care by empowering providers with clinical insight based on a patient’s physical health care environment. To that end, iN has helped the same hospital achieve statistically significant results in improving bedside care and reducing patient falls.

More than 230 professionals worldwide participated in a three-month-long judging process to select this year’s Stevie® Award winners. “Remarkable leadership [was] shown by Jeffrey Morelli for leading the product development of indeed a game changer in medicine,” the judges commented.

All award winners will be celebrated during a virtual awards ceremony on Wednesday, August 5, 2020.

Earning a graduate degree from an esteemed university was a “long-term ambition,” said Morelli. Doing extensive research on schools across the country left him “well-versed,” he said, to make his choice. Several things, in particular, proved drivers in his decision to choose Johns Hopkins and Carey. Two central ones were the passion for health care that matched his own (and led to his start up), plus Hopkins’ international renown in the health care field and its rigorous academic standards. In addition, and specific to Carey, was the school’s core value of "unwavering humanity,” which “empowers education, giving students tools to succeed, not just as employees but as individuals,” he said.

Because Morelli launched Inspiren shortly before starting his studies at Carey, he was able to apply his newfound skills and knowledge to his fledgling company straight away. In particular, he remembers two classes with residencies, Business Communications and Leading Organizations, as being especially impactful. The marketing skills he honed through several courses aided directly in the communications, messaging, and launching of his new company in the industry. The high-caliber cohort and health care focus of the program also supported Morelli in shaping concepts and strategies along the journey.

“It has truly been an honor to be recognized on behalf of the Inspiren team for this prestigious award that would not be possible without the collective efforts of clinicians, engineers, and product designers working together,” said Morelli.

“This is recognition of the culmination of a lot of sweat and hard work,” he added.  “It was a collaboration of brilliant minds able to apply innovation to solve a problem, then commercialize that innovation.”

“The goal is to change health care and ultimately save lives.”