By Steven Posnack, M.S., M.H.S. / Director, Office of Standards and Technology
Twitter:Â @ONC_HealthIT
Steven’s Twitter: @HealthIT_Policy
On May 9, 2016, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) announced the Move Health Data Forward Challenge to promote innovation in the area of consumer-mediated exchange. We challenged the health information technology industry to help find new technological ways to put consumers in the driver’s seat when it comes to how and when their health information can be shared.
The challenge used a multi-phased approach requiring increasing levels of commitment and technical development. Challenge participants were tasked with creating application programming interface (API) solutions that could use new technical specifications to support the goals of the challenge. In the first phase, challenge participants submitted business proposals, and ten winners were selected to move on to the second phase where they developed prototypes. Five winners from the second phase were selected to submit final projects in the third phase of the challenge. The challenge’s overall winning submissions best demonstrated a full solution that best meets the challenge’s requirements and allows patients to decide with whom their information can be shared.
The challenge structure was designed using lessons learned from the ONC Market R&D Pilot Challenge and used a similar multi-phased approach that enabled participants to form teams, submit proposals, and take time to build their products. The Move Health Data Forward Challenge added a new element –live demonstrations presented to a panel of judges who scored the products based on technical readiness and scalability. Additionally, technical advisors were available in later stages of the challenge to support implementation and product testing. Winners were required to provide their own data and test their products with members of the public to ensure usability among consumers.
Now, one year after the start of the challenge, ONC announced the phase 3, and overall winners of the Move Health Data Forward Challenge:
- Foxhall Wythe LLC: DocketTM is a secure system for users to seamlessly store and share their health data with trusted care providers. The solution promotes Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliance and uses industry-standard FHIR® messages. The authorization for sharing of data is accomplished through a Quick Response (QR) code scan and an OAuth 2.0 handshake.
- Live and Leave Well, LLC: Live and Leave WellTM provides both a consumer mediated exchange of end of life plans and creates a transportable package of data about that person’s end of life plans. The application uses a combination of open APIs, direct integration, as well as OAuth 2.0 to securely move sensitive data among multiple user types.
Each phase 3 winner received a $50,000 prize, making their total winnings over the course of the competition $75,000. A recorded demo of both of these two winners’ solutions is available as part of ONC’s March 20th Interoperability in Action Day. Phase 1 winners were announced on November 2, 2016 and Phase 2 winners on February 21, 2017.
The challenge winners will be featured in a public webinar on Friday June 23, 2017 at 11:00 am ET. For more information, please visit the Move Health Data Forward page on healthIT.gov.
This post was originally published on the Health IT Buzz and is syndicated here with permission.