App challenges offer much more than money
WASHINGTON – Every week, it seems, the Department of Health and Human Services or a related federal agency kicks off a new developer contest or publicly declares another winner – largely in the spirit of engaging the American people by asking for their help in finding innovative new technologies.
But what of the winners, and the runners-up for that matter, after collecting their prize?
Wil Yu, HHS special assistant of innovations and research and director of ONC’s SHARP (Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects) program fields questions from Healthcare IT News Contributing Editor Tom Sullivan.
Q: What do the contestants get out of the entire process beyond the money?
A: Certainly, the prize money is a financial boost but oftentimes the amount of work that they may have put into development far exceeds the prize they might achieve. From a developer standpoint, one of the great ways of benefitting from a challenge effort is the recognition that one receives.
Q: Once a contestant wins, do any federal agencies get involved beyond that point?
A: We know that as a result of the transformation taking place in the healthcare system, it’s in the best interest of the country, as a whole, for those who would seek to support that transformation, to have as wide a range as appropriate to help them get there. We’re trying to incentivize and support those who create the tools, services, applications to drive that change.
Q: Looking ahead, do you anticipate more involvement from the private sector?
A: We see significant involvement from the private sector, not only from private commercial efforts, academic institutions and other not-for-profit entities. The America Competes Act allows offices within the department to partner with organizations in the private sector to engage in challenges.
Q: Are there any initiatives worth tracking this year?
A: An initial effort we just launched earlier on within our office is partnering with the University of Maryland on a challenge they’re engaged with called Innovate for Healthcare. We’ll be seeking to work with academic institutions later on this year as well as state and local government. That’s listed on Challenge.gov. There’s about $30,000 in prizes that the University of Maryland put together.
Q: How might private entities benefit from conducting these app contests?
A: As far as I understand, the entities within the private sector have embraced challenge efforts for a variety of reasons. One, of course, is the solutions provided by the innovators. The opportunity to work with early-stage developers. Certainly there is a branding effort tied to this.
Q: We hear about the winners, but what tends to become of the runners-up?
A: First of all, for the winners and runners-up we’re trying to showcase their efforts on our website and Health 2.0 is working with our office to build a showcase portion to highlight some of the winners so the public can see who the top candidates were. That in itself will help to highlight the work that went into developing these innovations, and the innovators themselves.
To read the full interview go to: http://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/app-challenges-offer-much-more-mone...
