HHS issues health IT challenge as part of disease prevention agenda
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled Healthy People 2020, the new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention in the U.S., and myHealthyPeople, a new challenge for technology application developers.
Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending. Many of the risk factors that contribute to the development of these diseases are preventable.
Healthy People 2020 integrates input from public health and prevention experts; federal, state and local government officials; a consortium of more than 2,000 organizations; and the public. More than 8,000 comments were considered in drafting a comprehensive set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, according to the agency.
Based on this input, a number of new topic areas are included in the new initiative, including:
The myHealthyPeople challenge encourages developers to create applications for professionals who are working with the new national health objectives and state- and community-level health data.
The goal of the application challenge is to spur innovative approaches to helping communities track their progress using Healthy People objectives and targets as well as develop an agenda for health improvement, according to the HHS.
The website for the myHealthyPeople challenge states: “We challenge you to develop an engaging and empowering customized Healthy People 2020 application for Healthy People stakeholders—professionals, advocates, funders and decision makers—who will be using Healthy People to improve the health of the Nation.”
Successful applications will make it easy for users to keep up with Healthy People and combine related data in meaningful ways. The applications could include tools to help users integrate:
Solutions providers should register and complete entry requirements here.
Submissions will be accepted from Dec. 2 to March 07, 2011. The judging period will be from March 8 to March 18, 2011 and winners will be announced March 21, 2011.
Chronic diseases, such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, are responsible for seven out of every 10 deaths among Americans each year and account for 75 percent of the nation’s health spending. Many of the risk factors that contribute to the development of these diseases are preventable.
Healthy People 2020 integrates input from public health and prevention experts; federal, state and local government officials; a consortium of more than 2,000 organizations; and the public. More than 8,000 comments were considered in drafting a comprehensive set of Healthy People 2020 objectives, according to the agency.
Based on this input, a number of new topic areas are included in the new initiative, including:
- Adolescent health;
- Blood disorders and blood safety;
- Dementias, including Alzheimer’s disease;
- Early and middle childhood;
- Genomics;
- Global health;
- Health-related quality of life and well-being;
- Healthcare-associated infections;
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender health;
- Older adults;
- Preparedness;
- Sleep health; and
- Social determinants of health.
The myHealthyPeople challenge encourages developers to create applications for professionals who are working with the new national health objectives and state- and community-level health data.
The goal of the application challenge is to spur innovative approaches to helping communities track their progress using Healthy People objectives and targets as well as develop an agenda for health improvement, according to the HHS.
The website for the myHealthyPeople challenge states: “We challenge you to develop an engaging and empowering customized Healthy People 2020 application for Healthy People stakeholders—professionals, advocates, funders and decision makers—who will be using Healthy People to improve the health of the Nation.”
Successful applications will make it easy for users to keep up with Healthy People and combine related data in meaningful ways. The applications could include tools to help users integrate:
- Healthy People 2020 health topic areas, objectives and evidence-based resources of most interest;
- The latest evidence-based clinical prevention interventions related to Healthy People 2020 topics and objectives;
- The latest related evidence-based community prevention interventions;
- The latest related evidence-based individual prevention and health promoting interventions;
- Communication with colleagues who share health interests;
- Healthy People email updates;
- Related news, analyses and blogs from outside resources;
- Related community-level data combined with Healthy People data in innovative ways; and
- Community, county and/or state health status comparisons.
Solutions providers should register and complete entry requirements here.
Submissions will be accepted from Dec. 2 to March 07, 2011. The judging period will be from March 8 to March 18, 2011 and winners will be announced March 21, 2011.