Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators App Challenge

About the Challenge

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT are challenging teams of developers and health professionals to co-design an application that will be used to help solve one or more of our nation’s high-priority health problems.

The Leading Health Indicators (LHIs) are the nation’s critical health priorities and are part of the Healthy People 2020 initiative.  The indicators will be used by policymakers and health professionals to track progress in local communities as they work toward meeting national health goals.  For more information about the LHIs, visit www.HealthyPeople.gov.

The Challenge

Developers and public health experts are expected to co-design an application that makes the health indicators customizable and easy to use.  Successful applications will make it easy for users to use the Healthy People 2020 Leading Health Indicators and mash up data in meaningful ways.  The app could include tools to help users integrate: 

• The LHIs health topic areas, measures, and evidence based resources of interest
• Community, county, and state health status comparisons
• Data from electronic health records to assist with case management
• Real-time communication tools to stay in touch with peers
• Educational curriculums to teach health promotion and disease prevention
• Related news, analyses, and blogs from outside resources
• Related community-level data, combining with the LHI data in innovative ways
• Access to social media outlets and online networking communities

Co-Designing for the End User of the App

How can your app make a difference?  The graphic matrix above provides numerous combinations of potential brainstorming scenarios that might help you get started.  Pick a Person, a Place and a Leading Health Indicator and get creative.  You might create an app for...

• a firefighter who wants to work with a community center teaching people of all ages about dangers of second-hand smoke (as it also relates to accidental fires in the home), or…
• a dentist who wants to work in nursing homes to improve oral health or senior citizens, or…
• an exercise therapist who wants to work with workplaces to meet physical activity guidelines.

The possibilities are endless.  Once you determine what kind of app you want to build, decide what your app will do.  Pair up with an expert and co-design the app to solve a problem or revolutionize the way that work is done.  For example…

• Maurice is a social worker who sees the unmet prevention needs of his clients every day.  He wants to partner with a developer to design a tool that connects his clients with appropriate preventive services closest to them and tracks their progress from arranging the first visit and all follow up visits required to complete the assessment.  He wants it to include appropriate metrics for tracking and reporting the use of preventive services for these clients.
• Alison is a primary-care physician who recognizes that a population health approach can improve care for her patients, by grouping patients according to risk factors and providing them with evidence-based interventions.  She would like to partner with a developer to design a population healthcare toolkit to help her launch a new kind of practice, including a protocol checklist and a set of the most relevant Leading Health Indicators to track outcomes for her population and record them in her electronic health record.
• Sue is a university professor who is frustrated with the lack of real world public health stories to complement her academic curriculum.  She would like to partner with a developer to design an interactive curriculum application to integrate into public health courses.  The curriculum would capture multimedia case studies from community organizations that are successfully using evidence-based interventions and one or more of the Leading Health Indicators to track and report their progress.  Her students could access the case studies from their cell phones.

If you are an expert in need of an app, reach out to developers and designers to turn your idea into a reality.

Prizes

$15K in honoraria to demo your app.  FREE admission to the 2012 National Health Promotion Summit (Tue April 10 and Wed April 11, 2012, in Washington, DC).

• 1st place - $10,000
• 2nd place - $3,000
• 3rd place - $2,000



How to Enter

Solution providers should register and complete entry requirements at the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge site (www.Health2Challenge.org/healthy-people-2020-leading-health-indicators-app-challenge/).

Review Criteria

• Easy Access – The solution provides stakeholders with easy access to comprehensive suite of information resources to maximize their success in achieving the objectives of their choice. 
• Platform Neutrality – The solution is platform-neutral and can be accessed by simple web browser and/or mobile device.
• User Appeal – The solution has the potential to engage users, including those who may be on the front lines of prevention but are not web-savvy.
• Innovation of Design – The solution is original, creative, and empowering.
• Broad Applicability – The solution has potential for expansion and reuse.
• Integration of Health Data – The solution has multiple data sets.
• Evidence of Co-design and Collaboration – The solution has been thoughtfully designed with public health or healthcare subject matter experts.
• Bonus Points:
  
  • Compliance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (www.Section508.gov)
  • Use of Plain language (www.PlainLanguage.gov/howto/guidelines/reader-friendly.cfm)
  • Use of Health Literacy (www.Health.gov/HealthLiteracyOnline)

Technical Reviewers

• Lorien Abroms, ScD – Professor, The George Washington University, School of Public Health and Health Services
• Joanne Andreadis, PhD – Senior Advisor for Laboratory Preparedness, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Jonathan Cho – Chief, Communications Technology Branch, National Cancer Institute
• Ted Eytan, MD, MS, MPH – Director, The Kaiser Permanente Federation, Kaiser Permanente
• Gabriel Silberman, PhD – Senior Vice President and Director, CA Labs
• Andrea Grimes Parker, PhD – Postdoctoral Researcher, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
• Bill Curtis-Davidson – Accessibility Business Consulting and Solutions Leader, IBM Human Ability & Accessibility Center
• Kathy Baxter – Senior User Experience Researcher & UX Infrastructure Manager, Google
• Arthur Murphy – Principal, Aeolin Solutions 

Challenge sponsored by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC).



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