[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 110 (Thursday, June 7, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33737-33739]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-13819]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Announcement of Requirements and Registration for ``Blue Button 
Mash Up Challenge''

AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information 
Technology, HHS.
    Award Approving Official: Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator 
for Health Information Technology.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information 
Technology (ONC) and the Department of Veterans Affairs are working to 
empower individuals to be partners in their health through health 
information technology (health IT). Giving patients access to 
information about them related to the care they receive from doctors 
and other healthcare providers is in itself valuable, but it is also 
important to enable patients to use that information to make informed 
decisions.
    Individuals should be able to access and use their basic health 
information together with other information to take action: To better 
understand their current health status, use decision support software 
to choose treatments, anticipate and consider the costs of different 
options, and target and modify the everyday behaviors that have the 
greatest impact on their health. Inspired by the well-known ``three-
part aim'' for improvement of the health care system, this challenge 
requires participants to help individuals to take action based on 
combining their health information with additional information that 
puts it into a more meaningful context.
    The statutory authority for this challenge competition is Section 
105 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-
358).

DATES: Effective on June 5, 2012. Challenge submission period ends 
September 5, 2012, 11:59 p.m. et.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Adam Wong, 202-720-2866; Wil Yu, 202-
690-5920.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

[[Page 33738]]

Subject of Challenge Competition

    This challenge builds on a prior Blue Button challenge to make 
personal health information more usable and meaningful for the 
individual consumer or patient. Apps must be platform neutral. The 
challenge is broken into two parts:
    1. App Development: Entrants must submit an app that makes the best 
use of Blue Button downloaded personal health data and combines it with 
other types of data. Apps must include data from at least two of the 
three part aim categories below.
    2. Reach: The app must be able to garner high patient engagement 
rates. Entrants will therefore have to demonstrate a partnership with a 
personal health information data holding organization (such as a 
provider, payor, or Personal Health Record vendor--see healthit.gov/pledge for a definition of a data holding organization) to achieve wide 
distribution among patients.
    Applying the Three Part Aim: To participate in the challenge, 
entrants must mash up Blue Button data--data about a patient which the 
patient can download directly using a health plan's, doctor's or 
hospital's Blue Button function--with information from two or more of 
the three part aim categories. Below are examples of types of 
contextual data that would qualify for purposes of this contest. 
Entrants can use data sets from the categories below or similar data 
sets.

Components of the Three Part Aim

Part 1: Better Care Interactions With the Healthcare System

     Assist individuals in choosing high quality care that is 
relevant to their individual needs by including ratings for physician 
comparisons, hospital comparisons, or other care quality data.
     Assist individuals in identifying providers, practices, 
and hospitals that are health information technology enabled by using 
information from CMS related to Meaningful Use or other sources.
     Support individuals in understanding their current state 
of health by combining clinical data and medical claims data to create 
a comprehensive list of the individual's medical conditions.
     Support individuals in understanding their current 
medication regimen by aggregating clinical data from doctors/hospitals, 
prescription claims data, and downloaded clinical data to create a 
single comprehensive list of medications.

Part 2: Better Care for Oneself Outside of the Healthcare System

     Provide support to help an individual meet some of their 
personally stated health goals, (for example related to healthy eating, 
exercise, social support, or other virtual or geographically based 
resources).
     Provide an easily understood representation of an 
individual's health status in comparisons to others of a similar 
demographic (age, gender, ethnicity, or otherwise), and make 
recommendations for actionable things an individual could do toward 
better health outcomes based on their comparative health data.
     Extrapolate how healthy behavior change can lead to 
positive health outcomes over time (for example show potential weight 
loss and reduced risk of cardiac illness from adding two 30 minute 
walks per week)

Part 3: Reduced Costs

     Provide information related to costs of relevant health 
care services (treatments, procedures, medication formularies, etc.) 
and/or financial savings likely to accrue from behavior changes.
     Create algorithms that exhibit cost savings to the 
individual and/or the health care system if the individual makes 
healthy living interventions, or different cost related choices in 
their health care.

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 the Office of the National Coordinator for 
Health Information Technology.
    (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 duty hours.
    (6) Shall not be an employee of Office of the National Coordinator 
for Health IT.
    (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.
    Entrants must 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 my participation in this prize contest, 
whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or 
otherwise.
    Entrants must also agree to indemnify the Federal Government 
against third party claims for damages arising from or related to 
competition activities.

Registration Process for Participants

    To register for this challenge participants should either:
     Access the www.challenge.gov Web site and search for the 
``Blue Button Mash Up Challenge''.
     Access the ONC Investing in Innovation (i2) Challenge Web 
site at:
    [cir] http://www.health2con.com/devchallenge/challenges/onc-i2-challenges/.
    [cir] A registration link for the challenge can be found on the 
landing page under the challenge description.

Amount of the Prize

     First Prize: $45,000.
     Second Prize: $20,000.
     Third Prize: $10,000.
    Awards may be subject to Federal income taxes and HHS will comply 
with IRS withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable.

Payment of the Prize

    Prize will be paid by contractor.

Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected

    The ONC review panel will make selections based upon the following 
criteria:
     Effectively integrate Blue Button data that incorporates 
elements from two or more of the sections described

[[Page 33739]]

above (special consideration will be given to apps and tools that 
incorporate data from all three components of the three-part aim).
     Integrate patient-centered design and usability concepts 
to drive high patient adoption and engagement rates.
     Innovation--how is the data mashed up in innovative ways 
to contextualize the individual's Blue Button downloaded data.
     Provide a one page implementation plan for how this app 
solution will be implemented for scalability, including details for 
marketing and promotion.
     Existing or modified apps should show an uptake in their 
initial user base demonstrating the potential for market penetration 
based on Blue Button data contextualization capabilities.

Additional Information

    Ownership of intellectual property is determined by the following:
     Each entrant retains title and full ownership in and to 
their submission. Entrants expressly reserve all intellectual property 
rights not expressly granted under the challenge agreement.
     By participating in the challenge, each entrant hereby 
irrevocably grants to Sponsor and Administrator a limited, non-
exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, license and right to reproduce, 
publically perform, publically display, and use the Submission to the 
extent necessary to administer the challenge, and to publically perform 
and publically display the Submission, including, without limitation, 
for advertising and promotional purposes relating to the challenge.

    Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.

    Dated: May 31, 2012.
Farzad Mostashari,
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2012-13819 Filed 6-6-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-45-P