National Coordinator for Health IT Farzad Mostashari has announced a new contest that seeks to spur the development of mobile applications that could help patients reduce their heart health risks, Modern Healthcare reports (Conn, Modern Healthcare, 7/29).
The contest, called the "Million Hearts Risk Check Challenge," is part of the Million Hearts Initiative, a collaboration between HHS and health care industry stakeholders aimed at preventing heart disease and stroke (Viebeck, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 7/27).
About the Contest
The contest aims to encourage developers to build an app that would help consumers:
- Take a heart health risk assessment;
- Find places to get their blood pressure and cholesterol checked; and
- Use their heart health data to develop a personal health plan with their physician (Walker, Baltimore Sun, 7/27).
ONC Offers Resources To Help Contestants
In a "Health IT Buzz" blog post, Mostashari noted that the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT and its private-sector partners will make two application programming interfaces, or APIs, available to help developers participate in the app contest:
- "Archimedes Indigo," a cloud-based analytics tool that performs predictive modeling of a patient's health risks in real time; and
- A tool being created by electronic prescribing network Surescripts that will provide a directory of U.S. pharmacies that offer lipid and blood pressure screenings (Mostashari, "Health IT Buzz," ONC, 7/27).
Promoting the Winning Apps
The contest opened July 27, and submissions are due Oct. 31 (ONC Challenge website, 7/27).
The winners will be announced in December. The first-place winner will receive $100,000, and up to five finalists will receive $5,000 each (Ignelzi, U-T San Diego, 7/27).
According to Mostashari, four cities have pledged to promote the winning app in their communities. They are:
- Baltimore;
- Chicago;
- San Diego; and
- Tulsa, Okla. ("Health IT Buzz," ONC, 7/27).