On Monday, HHS launched a contest that challenges software developers to create Web- or mobile device-based applications to help public health professionals track, measure and report progress on the Leading Health Indicators for the Healthy People 2020 campaign, Healthcare IT News reports.
Todd Park, chief technology officer for HHS, announced the contest during the American Public Health Association's annual meeting.
About the Leading Health Indicators
The Leading Health Indicators are categories of health-related factors that HHS is tracking to measure progress toward meeting the public health goals outlined in its Healthy People 2020 campaign (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 10/31).
Also during the APHA meeting, HHS added three new categories to the nine existing categories of leading health indicators. The three new categories are:
- Oral health;
- Social determinants; and
- Maternal, infant and child health.
An updated list of all 12 Leading Health Indicators is available from HHS' Healthy People website (Daly [1], Modern Healthcare, 10/31).
About the App Contest
Park said the app contest "is an opportunity to improve the public's health through innovation. Developers and public health experts will work side by side to create customizable and user-friendly tools to help track the nation's progress in addressing the [Leading Health Indicators]"( Healthcare IT News, 10/31).
The contest invites developers to submit functional Web-based or mobile device-based prototypes of their health apps.
The prototypes will be reviewed by a panel of judges from the federal government, the private sector and academia. The judges will select winners based on criteria such as:
- Evidence of collaboration;
- Integration of health data; and
- User appeal (Daly [2], Modern Healthcare, 10/31).
The contest will award a total of $15,000 for the top three app designs. Submissions are due by March 9, 2012 (Leading Health Indicators App Challenge, 10/31).