News Release

HHS selects winners of heart health apps challenge

The winners of a search for innovative technology applications to help solve tough health IT problems were announced March 25 in Chicago by the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Farzad Mostashari, M.D., Sc.M.  The Investing in Innovation (i2) program’s “One in a Million Hearts Challenge” uses prizes and challenges to foster innovative health IT solutions that empower patients to pursue healthy lifestyles and improve their heart health.

Aligned with the Obama administration’s innovation agenda, it is the first federal program to operate under the authority of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act.  The i2 competition received funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  The awards were made at the American College of Cardiology Scientific Conference in Chicago.

“The One in a Million Hearts Challenge not only spreads awareness of a critical issue, it was one of the first to involve preventive care,” said Wil Yu, special assistant for innovations with the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.  “While we seek to improve treatment as a part of reducing the number of deaths from heart attacks and strokes, it is just as important that we create an educated patient population capable of engaging in its own health, leveraging the power of health IT, making more informed decisions and choosing healthier lifestyles.”

The winning team will be awarded $50,000 for THUMPr , a web-based application whose simple, immersive interface enables users to easily create personal heart health profiles.  THUMPr was submitted by Jared Schwartz, Luke Peterson, and Anthony Veach.  THUMPr generates unique recommendations based on the Million Hearts ABCS framework (Aspirin, Blood pressure, Cholesterol, Smoking cessation) and are paired with actionable steps for the user. The application features multilingual support and was developed using the Drupal framework and data sets from the American Heart Association, Mayo Clinic, Google Maps Database, and Facebook Connect Application Programming Interfaces.

The second place team will be awarded $20,000 for mHealthCoach , which incorporates 11 unique data feeds, supports social media integration, peer communities, and fitness groups.  Submitted by Aamer Ghaffar, the application is built on top of the mHealthCoach Health Guide Wellness platform, the winning submission in the Health 2.0 Walgreens Health Guide Challenge. mHealthCoach teaches users about cardiovascular health by visually representing positive activities such as exercise, low fat intake and low sodium diets and negative activities such as the intake of fatty foods. The application also provides reminders about physical activity and appointments and allows individuals to track their weight, diet, cholesterol and smoking habits. 

The third place team will be awarded $5,000.  Wellframe  focuses on patient engagement, evidence-based information and resources, targeted and actionable information and ease of usability.  The application was submitted by Trishan Panch, Archit Bhise, Vinnie Ramesh, and Jacob Sattelmair.  The application provides a heart disease risk assessment, social comparisons, preventive care alerts and educational resources.  Individuals can share information with their doctors electronically, using Direct, and by simple e-mail and print of personalized reports.

For more information about the Million Hearts initiative, visit the http://millionhearts.hhs.gov/index.html.

For more information about the One in a Million Hearts Challenge, visit http://www.health2challenge.org/one-in-a-million-hearts-challenge/ .

For more information about Investing in Innovation (i2), visit http://www.healthit.hhs.gov/innovations.

For more information about ONC, visit http://healthit.hhs.gov/.

For information about Health 2.0, visit http://www.health2con.com .

For information about U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Recovery Act programs, see www.hhs.gov/recovery.

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Last revised: March 28, 2012