$90,000 in prize money available to developers who create unique apps to improve health outcomes

Over the past few week, Health 2.0 and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the launch of three new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative competitions that challenge developer communities with creating innovative health information technology (HIT) solutions. The i2 program promotes the use of technology to drive better outcomes, engage users in their health and improve health care quality. The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge (http://www.health2challenge.org/onc-i2-challenges/) program is now accepting submissions for three new challenges, "Health Innovations in Commuting Challenge," "Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge" and the "EHR Accessibility Module Challenge."

"Health 2.0 is proud to launch these three new Developer Challenges. The burgeoning Developer Challenge program has witnessed a tremendous increase in both number and quality of competition submissions," said Indu Subaiya, CEO and Co-chair of Health 2.0. "While Health 2.0 is many things, its innovation competitions are one of its most forward-thinking divisions - thanks to the i2 program, we play a role in spurring innovation and improving the U.S. health care system."

Commuting is a component of daily life for 120 million Americans and has been shown to correlate with health problems including high cholesterol, recurring neck and back pain, and higher stress levels. The "Health Innovations in Commuting Challenge" calls on innovators to design concepts that would improve the health of commuters through enhanced data collection, exchange and analysis. Participants are asked to demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which commuting is correlated with health factors and to express the ways in which their models are innovative in diminishing commuting's deleterious effects on health. Submissions are due on Monday, March 5, 2012. The winner will present the submission on an ONC-hosted webinar and will have opportunities for future collaboration with industry leaders. For more details visit the "Health Innovations in Commuting Challenge" website (

href="http://www.health2challenge.org/health-innovations-in-commuting-challenge/">http://www.health2challenge.org/health-innovations-in-commuting-challenge/).

Individuals with disabilities constitute 19 percent of the population five years and older, yet account for over a quarter ($400B) of all health expenditures. Accessibility and usability in health IT are high priority issues for the disability community. The "EHR Accessibility Module Challenge" tasks multi-disciplinary teams with creating and testing a module or application that makes it easy for disabled consumers to access and interact with the health data stored in their EHRs. Submissions are due on Monday, July 23, 2012. Prizes will total $85,000. The first place winner will receive $60,000 and a demo opportunity, the second place winner will receive $20,000 and the third place winner will receive $5,000. For more details, visit the "EHR Accessibility Module Challenge" website (http://www.health2challenge.org/ehr-accessibility-module/).

Nearly one in five patients from a hospital will be readmitted within 30 days, a large proportion of which can be prevented by improving communications and coordinating care before and after discharge from the hospital. The "Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge" tasks developers to create easy-to-use web-based tools to make post-discharge follow-up appointment scheduling more effective and to facilitate collaboration between providers, caregivers and patients. The first place winner will receive partnership consideration with a pilot test bed community such as an ONC Beacon Community or a member of CMMI's Community-Based Care Transition Program, in addition to $5,000 to support a three-day site visit to the pilot community. Submissions are due on Monday, April 30 2012. For more details visit the "Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge" website.

"The Discharge Challenge is special because it serves as a follow-up to the very successful 'Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospital to Home Challenge.' It gives teams that participated in the Safe Transitions Challenge the opportunity to build on their innovations and gives new teams that did not participate in the challenge the chance to provide innovative approaches to improving the care transition process" explains Matthew Holt, Co-Chair of Health 2.0. "Challenges are one means to positively expedite the implementation of technology in the health care space."

Source: Health 2.0