The Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT have introduced a new challenge designed to make better use of electronic health information exports.
Nearly $500,000 has been made available for the EHIgnite Challenge, which is aimed at healthcare and technology organizations that could innovate new approaches to turning raw EHI into more actionable insights for patients and clinicians alike, according to ASTP/ONC.
"While health IT developers have been required to export EHI since December 2023, 'computable' doesn’t always mean 'usable,'" according to the agency. "Raw exports are often overwhelming and difficult to integrate. That's a problem the EHIgnite Challenge is hoping to solve. The challenge seeks solutions that improve the usability of single patient EHI exports."
For Phase 1 of the challenges, ASTP/ONC is seeking concept and design submissions that could address EHI summarization, as well as new approaches to scenarios including interactive patient tools, filtering by clinical domains, integration across settings, streamlined payer workflows and participant-defined use cases.
As many as nine winners could receive $10,000 each in Phase 1. For Phase 2, prizes could be as high as $250,000, with bonus recognition for approaches that address multi-EHR interoperability.
"The EHIgnite Challenge will catalyze the development of tools and workflows," an agency official said in a press statement earlier this month, "focused on the application of AI, that transform raw EHI into clear, usable information to better support care transitions, provider onboarding, and patient understanding and engagement. Awards will support both concept development and prototype solutions through 2027."
ASTP/ONC is hosting a webinar on March 11 for those who would like to learn more. Register here.
Mike Miliard is executive editor of Healthcare IT News
Email the writer: mmiliard@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.
