Apply to be One of the Next HHSentrepreneurs

Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced it is seeking innovators and entrepreneurs to apply for the HHSentrepreneurs Program. Launched last year, HHSentrepreneurs connects private sector innovators and entrepreneurs with teams of federal employees working on projects that address some of the biggest challenges in health, health care and human services.

HHS is working to attract entrepreneurial talent to create a culture that supports risk-taking and accelerates innovation. HHSentrepreneurs is based on the HHS Innovation Fellows Program launched in 2012. HHSentrepreneurs builds on lessons learned during the pilot HHS Innovation Fellows Program, and will identify HHS staff who are working on some of the Department’s toughest challenges and match these talented individuals with External Entrepreneurs for a period of 6-12 months. HHSentrepreneurs provides a novel framework to attract outside talent in areas including open innovation, agile development, and lean methodologies to accelerate innovation within HHS. Startup organizations have demonstrated that rapid iteration between various versions or features of a product can yield successful results, and HHS would like to promote these methods internally to address high-priority projects.

This year, HHSentrepreneurs intends to place six to eight external entrepreneurs into the following projects starting in the fall of 2013:

• Application of Design Thinking to Grants: The Administration for Children and Families seeks to improve grantee program implementation to better meet the needs of the low income populations that the agency serves through the creation of a low cost, replicable methodology to better assess grantee client problems.
• Cloud-Based GIS Maps Displaying Aggregate Data on Medical Malpractice: The Health Resources Services Administration seeks to build a public-facing Geographic Information Systems map application that displays medical malpractice data to allow researchers and the general public to better view, analyze, and understand this information to support the development of novel tools and strategies to improve patient safety and protection.
• Health Information Exchange Accelerators: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology seeks to accelerate health information exchange (HIE) by developing new tools that can reduce HIE implementation effort and cost for a wide range of health care entities including those that are not eligible for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Records Incentive Program.
• Modernizing the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System: CMS seeks to improve the existing National Plan and Provider Enumeration System to improve usability, scalability and data quality.
• Predictive Analytics: Merging Innovation and Business Operations: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources seeks to leverage the field of predictive analytics to generate predictive risk models to proactively manage grants across HHS Operating and Staff Divisions.
• Publication Planning and Clearance Process Improvement Project: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs seeks to re-engineer its publications planning and clearance process to better meet the needs of a communications landscape dominated by digital and social media.

Applications are being accepted until Aug. 16, 2013. For more information and to apply, visit the HHSentrepeneurs web page.