HHS celebrates employees' innovation efforts
It was innovation celebration day at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). On Sept. 24, the agency took time to honor the most recent winners of the HHSinnovates program.
Launched in spring 2010, the HHSinnovates program aims to cultivate a culture of innovation within the agency by allowing employees an opportunity to share their ideas and rewarding the best ones. Now in its fifth round, approximately 450 innovations have been nominated for awards through HHSinnovates.
“In the past, some ideas haven’t had the support they need to spread,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, MPA. “That is clearly beginning to change. Today is a recognition of the changes underway.”
Projects receiving mentions during the event included:
Each of these initiatives will allow HHS to save costs, spread scarce resources further and make itself more transparent, according to Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also encourage HHS employees to partake in the burgeoning culture of innovation and some invite the public to participate.
Launched in spring 2010, the HHSinnovates program aims to cultivate a culture of innovation within the agency by allowing employees an opportunity to share their ideas and rewarding the best ones. Now in its fifth round, approximately 450 innovations have been nominated for awards through HHSinnovates.
“In the past, some ideas haven’t had the support they need to spread,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, MPA. “That is clearly beginning to change. Today is a recognition of the changes underway.”
Projects receiving mentions during the event included:
- National Institute of Health Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools, an initiative aimed at making government-funded research more accessible to the public with the hopes of increasing accountability and transparency;
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Free Stuff, an online community where HHS employees can post or find surplus equipment or supplies available for use; and
- 100K Genome Project, a collaborative effort to sequence the genetic codes of 100,000 strains of food pathogens and to make them publicly available for the purpose of developing tests to identify bacteriums at a faster rate than currently possible.
Each of these initiatives will allow HHS to save costs, spread scarce resources further and make itself more transparent, according to Thomas R. Frieden, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They also encourage HHS employees to partake in the burgeoning culture of innovation and some invite the public to participate.