[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 54 (Tuesday, March 20, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16229-16232]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-6608]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Announcement of Requirements and Registration for the ``2012 ASPR 
Challenge Titled Now Trending: Health in My Community''

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and 
Response, HHS.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) 
is announcing the launch of the 2012 ASPR Challenge titled Now 
Trending: #Health in My Community. This challenge aims to address the 
gaps in health surveillance at the State, Local, Tribal, and 
Territorial level to improve situational awareness and response to 
health threats. Specifically, this contest will challenge entrants to 
create a Web-based application that takes open source Twitter data for 
a specified geographic area, counts the frequency of common illness 
related terms, and creates a top five list of trending illnesses for 
the previous twenty-four hour period. The top five list would be 
automatically delivered daily to public health

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practitioners at health departments via a Web-based widget. This 
information can then be used by the health departments in multiple ways 
such as building a baseline of trend data, engaging the public on 
trending health topics, serving as an indicator of potential health 
issues emerging in the population, or cross-referencing other data 
sources. The resulting product from this challenge will cut down on the 
manpower intensive task of sifting through Twitter postings for 
meaningful health data.

DATES: Important dates for this Challenge are:
    Submission Period Begins: 03-16-2012.
    Submission Period Ends: 06-01-2012.
    Judging Process for Finalists Begins: 06-18-2012.
    Judging Process for Finalists Ends: 07-31-2012.
    Winners notified: August 2012.
    Winners announced: September 2012.
    Winners Present Tools at Fusion Forum: November 2012.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Diana Boss, MPH, Public Health 
Analyst, Fusion Cell, OPEO, ASPR, HHS. Phone: 202-260-5189.
    Award Approval Official: RADM Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH., Office of 
the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Subject of Challenge Competition

    Entrants are asked to develop a Web-based application that can 
ingest open source Twitter data for a specified geographic area, count 
the frequency of common illness related terms based on a provided 
common disease term taxonomy, and produce a top five list of trending 
illnesses for the previous twenty-four hour period. The daily top five 
list would be automatically delivered daily to public health 
practitioners at health departments via a Web-based widget. The 
resulting information will then be available to health departments to 
use in a variety of ways including building a baseline of trend data, 
engaging the public on trending health topics, serving as an indicator 
of potential health issues emerging in the population, or cross-
referencing other data sources.

Eligibility Rules for Participating in the Competition

    To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge, an individual 
or entity--
    (1) Shall have registered to participate in the competition under 
the rules promulgated by ASPR;
    (2) Shall have complied with all the requirements under this 
section;
    (3) In the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and 
maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the 
case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, 
shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States;
    (4) May not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within 
the scope of their employment;
    (5) Shall not be an HHS employee working on their applications or 
submissions during assigned work hours;
    (6) Shall not be an employee of the Office of the Assistant 
Secretary for Preparedness and Response;
    (7) Federal grantees may not use Federal funds to develop COMPETES 
Act challenge applications unless consistent with the purpose of their 
grant award;
    (8) Federal contractors may not use Federal funds from a contract 
to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications or to fund efforts in 
support of a COMPETES Act challenge submission.
    An individual or entity shall not be deemed ineligible because the 
individual or entity used Federal facilities or consulted with Federal 
employees during a competition if the facilities and employees are made 
available to all individuals and entities participating in the 
competition on an equitable basis.
    This Challenge is open to any Contestant, defined as (1) an 
individual or team of U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the 
United States who are 18 years of age and over, or (2) an entity 
incorporated in and maintaining a primary place of business in the 
United States. Foreign citizens can participate as employees of an 
entity that is properly incorporated in the U.S. and maintains a 
primary place of business in the U.S. Contestants may submit more than 
one entry, e.g., if they have developed more than one tool.
    Any individual or team that supplies false information, enters the 
challenge by fraudulent means, or is otherwise determined to be in 
violation of the eligibility criteria or terms of the challenge shall 
be ineligible for any prize and shall be required to forfeit and prize 
obtained based on such information or means.
    Eligibility for a prize award is contingent upon fulfilling all 
requirements set forth herein. ASPR will not select as a Winner an 
individual or entity that is currently on the Excluded Parties List 
(https://www.epls.gov/).
    By participating in this competition, participants agree to assume 
any and all risks and waive claims against the Federal Government and 
its related entities, except in the case of willful misconduct, for any 
injury, death, damage, or loss of property, revenue, or profits, 
whether direct, indirect, or consequential, arising from participation 
in this prize contest, whether the injury, death, damage, or loss 
arises through negligence or otherwise.
    By participating in this competition, participants agree to 
indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damage 
arising from or related to competition activities.
    Based on the subject matter of the contest, the type of work that 
it will possibly require, as well as an analysis of the likelihood of 
any claims for death, bodily injury, or property damage, or loss 
potentially resulting from contest participation, Contestants are not 
required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial 
responsibility in order to participate in this contest.
    Upon submission, each Contestant warrants that he or she is the 
sole author and owner of the submission; that the submission is wholly 
original with the Contestant (or is an improved version of an existing 
tool that the Contestant has sufficient rights to use); and that it 
does not infringe any copyright or any other rights of any third party 
of which Contestant is aware. Each Contestant also warrants that their 
submission is free of malware. Each Contestant also warrants that he or 
she has complied with the Twitter API Guidelines and Terms listed on 
the following Web site: https://dev.twitter.com/docs.
    By participating in this contest, each Contestant grants to ASPR an 
irrevocable, paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to 
post, link to, share, and display publicly the submission on the Web, 
for the purpose of the Challenge, during the duration of the Challenge, 
and for a period of two years following announcement of the winners. 
Contestants with winning submissions also grant to ASPR an irrevocable, 
paid-up, royalty-free nonexclusive worldwide license to use winning 
submissions and distribute them to the public to enhance situational 
awareness and response to health threats for a period of two years 
following announcement of the winners. All Contestants will retain all 
other intellectual property rights in their submissions. For example, 
during the two-year period referenced above, contestants retain the 
right to utilize and modify their submissions as desired and to provide 
licenses (paid or un-paid) to other entities. Thereafter, the 
nonexclusive license will expire, and contestants could grant an 
exclusive license if they so desired.

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Registration Process for Participants

    Interested persons that meet the eligibility criteria above should 
register at www.nowtrendingchallenge.com. Registration is free and can 
be completed anytime during the Submission Period, 03-16-2012 to 06-01-
2012.

Amount of the Prize

    At the culmination of the submission period, all submitted entries 
will be reviewed for eligibility criteria. Those entries that are found 
to be eligible will be reviewed by a judging panel for determination of 
one grand prize submission. The grand prize submission will be awarded 
$21,000.00. If a team wins the prize, the prize money will be divided 
evenly among all team members. The winning entry will also receive 
$1,000 to apply towards travel to Washington, DC for the announcement 
of the winner.

Payment of Prize

    Prizes awarded under this competition will be paid by electronic 
funds transfer and may be subject to Federal income taxes. Any Federal, 
state, and, local taxes, and all similar fees and assessments, are the 
sole responsibility of the prize recipients. HHS will comply with the 
Internal Revenue Service withholding and reporting requirements, where 
applicable.

Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected

    All submissions that satisfy eligibility criteria will be judged by 
an expert panel composed of ASPR staff. The expert panel may also 
include and/or consult with Federal employees from other HHS components 
and Federal agencies, State and Local public health representatives, 
and/or external members of the health information technology community 
in compliance with the requirements of the America COMPETES Act. Judges 
may be named after commencement of the challenge. The judging panel 
will make selections based upon the following criteria:
    1. Accessibility: Each entry will be rated on its ease of 
accessibility. Preference will be given to applications that are easily 
accessible to a wide range of users, including those with disabilities, 
on a variety of platforms.
    2. Innovation: Each tool must meet the basic requirements for entry 
in the competition. Beyond the basics, each entry will be rated to the 
degree of new thinking it brings to applications targeting health 
surveillance. Innovations that help refine the tool's output or add 
additional knowledge beyond the top five trends are encouraged. These 
innovations may include but are not limited to: Adaptability to 
categories beyond diseases, reduction of noise to improve data quality, 
refinement of geolocation ability, etc.
    3. Usability: Each entry will be rated on its ease of usability and 
interactive capabilities. Entries will be judged based on the user 
interface for selecting the location of interest for reporting and on 
the user ability to interact with output data.
    4. Potential for impact on ability to gain/maintain health 
situational awareness: Each entry will be rated on the strength of its 
potential to help health authorities increase their knowledge of 
emerging health topics in their population of interest.
    Submissions should include a title; a description of the submission 
in the form of a document (5 page maximum) or a slide presentation (10 
slide maximum); a Web address for the technology; instructions on how 
to operate the tool; and system requirements required to run the tool. 
Pictures and video are optional but helpful.

Additional Information

    1. General--Contestants must provide continuous access to their 
submission, a detailed description of the tool, instructions on how to 
install and operate the tool, and system requirements required to run 
the tool.
    2. Acceptable platforms--The submission must be designed for the 
Web, a personal computer, a mobile handheld device, console, or any 
platform broadly accessible on the open Internet.
    3. Acceptable Twitter Sources--All participants must use openly 
available Twitter information via one of the following Twitter API's: 
REST API or Streaming API
    3. Accessibility--The tool must, to the extent practicable, be 
accessible to a wide range of users, including users with disabilities. 
It should also aim to meet objectives for Federal compliance guidelines 
for information technology as addressed by Section 508 of the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973: http://www.section508/gov.
    4. Deadlines and Modifications--All submissions must be available 
for evaluation and judging by 11:59 p.m., EDT, on 06-01-2012.
    5. Intellectual Property--The Submission must not infringe any 
copyright or any other rights of any third party.
    6. No logo or endorsement--The tool must not use any HHS or ASPR 
logo or official seal in the submission and must not claim HHS or ASPR 
endorsement. The award of a prize in this Challenge does not constitute 
an endorsement of a specific product by HHS, ASPR, or the Federal 
Government.
    7. Functionality/Accuracy--A Submission may be disqualified if the 
tool fails to function as expressed in the description provided by the 
user or if the tool provides inaccurate or incomplete information.
    8. Security--Submissions must be free of malware. The Contestant 
agrees that HHS may conduct testing on the tool to determine whether 
malware or other security threats may be present. HHS may disqualify 
the tool if, in HHS's judgment, the tool may damage the Government's or 
others' equipment or operating environment.
    9. Debarment and Suspension Screening. By submitting an entry, 
Contestants consent to debarment and compliance screening.

Compliance With Rules and Contacting Challenge Winners

    Finalists and the Challenge Winners must comply with all terms and 
conditions of these Official Rules and winning is contingent upon 
fulfilling all requirements contained herein. Awards may be subject to 
Federal income taxes, and the Department of Health and Human Services 
will comply with the Internal Revenue Service withholding and reporting 
requirements, where applicable. Winners will be notified by email, 
telephone, or mail after the date of the judging.

Privacy

    If contestants choose to provide ASPR with personal information by 
registering or filling out the submission form through the challenge 
Web site, that information is used to respond to contestants in matters 
regarding their submission; announcements of entrants, finalists, and 
winners of the Challenge; and in relation to promotion of the 
Challenge. Information is not collected for commercial marketing.
    Winners are permitted to cite that they won this contest.

General Conditions

    ASPR reserves the right to cancel, suspend, and/or modify the 
Competition, or any part of it, for any reason, at ASPR's sole 
discretion.
    Participation in this Challenge constitutes a contestant's full and 
unconditional agreement to abide by the Challenge's Official Rules 
found at www.Challenge.gov.

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.


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    Dated: February 7, 2012.
Nicole Lurie,
Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
[FR Doc. 2012-6608 Filed 3-19-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-37-P