The Care Innovations Summit Challenges: Crowdsourcing Innovation

Care Innovations Summit Challenges

in•no•va•tion [in-uh-vey-shuh n]
Noun
1. something new or different introduced.
2. the act of innovating; introduction of new things or methods.

When it comes to healthcare and federal agencies, “innovation” is probably not the first word that pops into your head. But that may be rapidly changing, thanks to the Care Innovations Summit. The Summit was co-hosted by the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, the West Wireless Health Institute, and Health Affairs.

During a day of passionate talks and thought-provoking panels, numerous exciting — and yes, innovative — challenges were announced to the standing-room only crowd. Take a look, note the deadlines, and gather up a team.

Alzheimer’s Challenge 2012
This challenge is seeking new ways to diagnose and monitor people with Alzheimer’s disease through the development of simple, cost-effective, consistent tools that could be easily used to assess memory, mood, thinking and activity level over time. A total of $300,000 will be awarded, including $25,000 to five finalists and $175,000 to one winner. The challenge is sponsored by Janssen Alzheimer Immunotherapy Research & Development, LLC, and Pfizer, in conjunction with the Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Alzheimer’s Initiative. The submission deadline is March 16, 2012.

Clinical Decision Support (CDS) Challenge
The Allscripts Million Hearts Initiative CDS Challenge is seeking the creation of a resource that accelerates delivery of optimal care for patients with cardiovascular disease through clinical decision support functionality. A $50,000 prize is being offered for this challenge, which opens February 27 and closes June 30, 2012.

Data Design Diabetes™, Sanofi U.S. Innovation Challenge
This challenge is seeking to drive innovation in the quality, delivery, and cost of diabetes care. It starts off with crowdsourcing to define the focus areas, followed by an open submission, mentorship, a demo day, and then “community uptake.” It features more than $200,000 in prize money, with the winner receiving $100,000 to develop their solution. The competition begins February 23 and the last day to submit an entry is March 23, 2012.

Discharge Follow-Up Appointment Challenge
This challenge is from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). It follows an initial challenge, “Ensuring Safe Transitions from Hospital to Home,” in which developers created a web-based application that could empower patients and caregivers to better navigate and manage transition from a hospital. ONC is challenging software developers to create an easy-to-use web-based tool that will make post-discharge follow-up appointment scheduling a more effective and shared process for care providers, patients and caregivers. The winner will receive partnership consideration with a pilot test bed community candidate and up to $5,000 to support a 3-day site visit to the pilot community involving 2-3 people. The submission deadline is April 30, 2012.

Janssen Connected Care Challenge
This challenge is looking for approaches that will improve a patient’s transition from hospital to home, and is “designed to spur innovation and drive action towards achieving better care and better health at lower cost through continuous improvement.” A total of $250,000 will be awarded to entrepreneurs. The competition begins February 27 and the last day to submit an entry is March 25, 2012. Janssen asks, “Ready to dazzle us with your solution?”

Kaiser Permanente HIV Challenge
Kaiser is challenging other private health care providers and community health clinics to increase the number of HIV-infected people getting treatment by sharing KP’s toolkit of clinical best practices, tools, mentoring, training and health IT expertise. The reward in this challenge is in improving health outcomes.

Care Innovations Summit Coverage