As part of its new roadmap to improve healthcare quality, the Health & Human Services Department has challenged developers to create applications for professionals who are working on national health objectives and with state and community data.
HHS detailed the "myHealthyPeople" challenge as a part of its Healthy People 2020, the nation's next set of 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention, which it unveiled Dec. 2.
For the past 30 years, HHS has made its Healthy People effort a framework for public health prevention priorities and actions. Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths annually and account for 75 percent of the nation's health spending, said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Many of the risk factors that contribute to the development of these diseases are preventable.
Information technology tools can make the Healthy People framework "come alive," said Todd Park, HHS chief technology officer.
"The "˜myHealthyPeople' apps challenge will help spur innovative approaches to helping communities track their progress using Healthy People objectives and targets as well as develop an agenda for health improvement," he said, in an announcement releasing the report.
For example, the tools could integrate the latest community or individual public health methods that are based on evidence of their effectiveness by combining community level data with that from the Healthy People effort in innovative ways to reduce diabetes.
In order to engage potential users, who may be working on the front lines of prevention but are not particularly technology savvy, the technology applications should be easy to access and be platform neutral, whether through a Web browser or mobile device, according to the challenge requirements.
Developer submissions are due March 7, and the awards will be announced March 21. First place winners will get $2,500, second gets $1,000, and third $500.
Among the goals of Healthy People 2020 are effective use of health communication and health IT that can foster patient- and public-centered health information and services.
The document includes objectives to support shared decision-making between patients and providers; to provide personalized self-management tools and resources; to make possible the meaningful use of health IT and exchange of health information among health care and public health professionals; and to increase access to the Internet.
During the next decade, according to the report, health IT adoption will accelerate in speed and scale, which will present its own challenges.
"Social media and emerging technologies promise to blur the line between expert and peer health information" it said. "Monitoring and assessing the impact of these new media, including mobile health, on public health will be challenging."
It will be important to help health professionals and the public adapt to the changes in health care quality and efficiency that will be products of health communication and health IT, it added.
