7 June 2012
Health Dept: Four $305K Health Data Apps Competitions
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 110 (Thursday, June 7, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33737-33739]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-13819]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
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
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 110 (Thursday, June 7, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33739-33740]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-13826]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Announcement of Requirements and Registration for ``Health Data
Platform Metadata Challenge''
AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Award Approving Official: Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology.
SUMMARY: As part of the HHS Open Government Plan, the HealthData.gov
Platform (HDP) is a flagship initiative and focal point helping to
establish learning communities that collaboratively evolve and mature
the utility and usability of a broad range of health and human service
data. HDP will deliver greater potential for new data driven insights
into complex interactions of health and health care services. To
augment the HDP effort, seven complementary challenges will encourage
innovation around initial platform- and domain-specific priority areas,
fostering opportunities to tap the creativity of entrepreneurs and
productivity of developers.
The ``Health Data Platform Metadata Challenge'' requests the
application of existing voluntary consensus standards for metadata
common to all open government data, and invites new designs for health
domain specific metadata to classify datasets in our growing catalog,
creating entities, attributes and relations that form the foundations
for better discovery, integration and liquidity.
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
October 2, 2012, 11:59 p.m. et.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Adam Wong, 202-720-2866; Wil Yu, 202-
690-5920.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Subject of Challenge Competition
The W3C has a number of standard vocabulary recommendations for
Linked Data publishers, defining cross domain semantic metadata of open
government data, including concept schemes, provenance, statistics,
organizations, people, data catalogs and their holdings, linked data
assets, and geospatial data, in addition to the foundational standards
of the Web of Data (such as HTTP, XML, RDF and various serializations,
SPARQL, OWL, etc). Other voluntary consensus standards development
organizations are also making valuable contributions to open standards
for Linked Data publishers, such as the emerging GeoSPARQL standard
from the Open Geospatial Consortium.
In some cases, the entities and relations in these vocabulary
standards are expressed using UML class diagrams as an abstract syntax,
then automatically translated into various concrete syntaxes like XML
Schemas and RDF Schemas, which also makes many of the standards from
the Object Management Group easy to express as RDF Schemas, such as
those that describe business motivation (including but not limited to
vision, mission, strategies, tactics, goals, objectives), service
orientation, process automation, systems integration, and other
government specific standards. Oftentimes there exist domain specific
standards organizations, with standards products that express domain
specific entities and relations, such as those for the health or
environmental sectors. The Data.gov PMO has recently stood up a site to
collect these standards when expressed as RDF Schemas for use by the
growing community of Government Linked Data publishers, which includes
HHS/CMS, EPA, DOE/NREL, USDA, and the Library of Congress.
The challenge winner will demonstrate the application of voluntary
consensus and de facto cross domain and domain specific standards,
using as many of the HHS datasets available on healthdata.gov as
possible. There are two objectives:
1. Apply existing standards as RDF Schemas from voluntary consensus
standards organizations (W3C, OMG, OGC, etc.) for expressing cross
domain metadata that is common to all open government data.
2. Design new HHS domain specific metadata based on the data made
available on healthdata.gov where no RDF Schema is otherwise given or
available.
When designing new metadata expressed as RDF Schemas, designers
should:
Leverage existing data dictionaries expressed as natural
language in the creation of new conceptual schemas, as provided by
domain authorities;
Observe best practices for URI's schemes that is
consistent with existing healthdata.gov work (such as the Clinical
Quality Linked Data release from HDI 2011); and
Organize related concepts into small, compose-able
component vocabularies.
Turtle syntax for RDFS and RDF is preferred. The contributed code
will be given an open source license and managed by HHS on github.com,
with copyright and attribution to the developer(s) as appropriate, and
will ideally be used to populate vocab.data.gov.
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
[[Page 33740]]
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
``Health Data Platform Metadata 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
[ssquf] First Prize: $20,000.
[ssquf] Second Prize: $10,000.
[ssquf] Third Prize: $5,000.
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:
Metadata: The number of cross domain and domain specific
voluntary consensus and defacto standard schemas, vocabularies or
ontologies that are (re)used or designed and applied to HHS data on
healthdata.gov.
Data: The number of datasets that the standards based
cross domain metadata and schema designed domain specific data is
applied to.
Linked Data: The solution should use best practices for
the expression of metadata definitions and instance data
identification, leveraging the relevant open standards, including but
not limited to foundational standards (RDF, RDFS, SPARQL, OWL), and
other defacto vocabularies and ontologies such as those listed here as
required, with the expectation that existing standards will be reused
to the fullest extent possible.
Components: Leveraging software components that are
already a part of the HDP is preferable, but other open source
solutions may be used.
Tools: Use of automation and round trip engineering that
enable multiple concrete syntax realization from abstract syntax of
cross domain and/or domain specific metadata is desirable, with no
expectation that the tools must be open source or otherwise contributed
to HDP as part of this challenge submission. Only newly designed domain
specific RDF Schemas, their composition cross domain standards based
RDF Schemas, and their application to various datasets are expected to
be submitted for this challenge. Tool functionality may be highlighted
to explain implementations as desired.
Best practices: Where any new schemas and software code is
created, they should exemplify design best practices and known software
patterns, or otherwise establish them.
Documentation: Articulation of design using well known
architecture artifacts.
Engagement: Willingness to participate in the community as
a maintainer/committer after award.
Additional Information
The virtual machines and codebase outputs from innovations
demonstrated by challenge participants will be made publically
available through HHS Github repositories (see https://github.com/hhs/)
as release candidates for further community refinement as necessary,
including open source licensing and contributor attribution as
appropriate.
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
Dated: May 31, 2012.
Farzad Mostashari,
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2012-13826 Filed 6-6-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-45-P
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 110 (Thursday, June 7, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33740-33742]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-13830]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Announcement of Requirements and Registration for ``Health Data
Platform Simple Sign-On Challenge''
AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology, HHS.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Award Approving Official: Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator
for Health Information Technology.
SUMMARY: As part of the HHS Open Government Plan, the HealthData.gov
Platform (HDP) is a flagship initiative and focal point helping to
establish learning communities that collaboratively evolve and mature
the utility and usability of a broad range of health and human service
data. HDP will deliver greater potential for new data driven insights
into complex interactions of health and health care services. To
augment the HDP effort, seven complementary challenges will encourage
innovation around initial platform- and domain-specific priority areas,
fostering opportunities to tap the creativity of entrepreneurs and
productivity of developers.
The ``Health Data Platform Simple Sign-On Challenge'' will improve
community engagement by providing simplified sign on (SSO) for external
users interacting across multiple HDP technology components, making it
easier for community collaborators to contribute, leveraging new
approaches to decentralized authentication.
[[Page 33741]]
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
October 2, 2012, 11:59 p.m. et.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Adam Wong, 202-720-2866; Wil Yu, 202-
690-5920.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Subject of Challenge Competition
Healthdata.gov is leveraging a variety of open source
infrastructure components including the Drupal 7 content management
system, the CKAN data portal, the Solr search engine, and the community
edition of the Virtuoso (as a RDF database and SPARQL endpoint query
service). Going forward, the HDP team intends to realize an
architecture similar to the Linked Data Integration Framework (LDIF)
and leverage tools in the LOD2 stack where possible, beginning with
Ontowiki to be used as Virtuoso editor, most likely followed by SILK
for cross domain correlation. HDP would like to enable service
requestors to be authenticated using WebID from the W3C. Some of the
current and upcoming HDP infrastructure components support aspects of
WebID functionality already while others do not. A number of WebID
libraries are available, written in various languages.
This challenge winner will present a replicable open source virtual
machine environment demonstrating how HDP components (with an initial
emphasis on Virtuoso,\1\ Drupal 7,\2\ CKAN,\3\ OntoWiki,\4\ and
Solr,\5\) can provide and/or consume WebID's, contributing to
simplified sign-on for humans and machines. The developer designs how
their code might utilize each component as a WebID identity provider or
relying party, presumably leveraging existing capabilities to the
fullest extent possible. The end result will demonstrate seamless
integration across a number of HDP components, without introducing any
external service dependencies that couldn't be operated by HHS. The
contributed code will be given an open source license and managed by
HHS on github.com, with copyright and attribution to the developer(s)
as appropriate.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/.
\2\ http://www.acquia.com/Drupal-7.
\3\ http://ckan.org/.
\4\ http://lod2.eu/Project/OntoWiki.html.
\5\ http://lucene.apache.org/solr/.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
``Health Data Platform Simple Sign-On 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: $20,000.
Second Prize: $10,000.
Third Prize: $5,000.
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:
Coverage: The more integrated components the better, with
an emphasis on leverage existing work and capabilities of each
component.
Coupling: The level with which any integrated components
can be removed without affecting the remaining component functionality.
Performance: The lowest latency and best responsiveness of
the component interactions as demonstrated by test cases.
Elegance: How the design deals with both human and
application agents that interact with different interfaces, and how
each is managed across infrastructure components.
Documentation: Articulation of design using well known
architecture artifacts and executable test cases.
Engagement: Willingness to participate in the community as
a maintainer/committer after award.
Additional Information
The virtual machines and codebase outputs from innovations
demonstrated by challenge participants will be made publically
available through HHS Github repositories (see https://github.com/hhs/)
as release candidates for further community refinement as necessary,
including open source licensing and contributor attribution as
appropriate.
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
[[Page 33742]]
Dated: May 31, 2012.
Farzad Mostashari,
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2012-13830 Filed 6-6-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-45-P
[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 110 (Thursday, June 7, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 33742-33745]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-13834]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Announcement of Requirements and Registration for ``My Air, My
Health Challenge''
AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information
Technology, HHS. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
National Institutes of Health, HHS. Award Approving Official: Farzad
Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Environmental and public health are closely related and
complementary fields--and their future depends on a closer
understanding of those connections. New portable sensors have the
potential to transform the way we measure and interpret the influence
of pollution on health. These technologies can provide a picture that
is more detailed and more personal, with dramatic implications for
health care, air quality oversight, and individuals' control over their
own environments and health.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department
of Health and Human Service (HHS) [National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS) and Office of the National Coordinator for
Health Information Technology (ONC)] envision a future in which
powerful, affordable, and portable sensors provide a rich awareness of
environmental quality, moment-to-moment physiological changes, and
long-term health outcomes. Health care will be connected to the whole
environment, improving diagnosis, treatment, and prevention at all
levels.
Many of the first steps toward this future have already been taken.
Prototype projects have developed portable air quality and physiologic
sensors, and experimental analysis tools for handling data that is
higher quantity, but often lower quality, than more traditional
monitoring techniques. The ``My Air, My Health Challenge'' aims to
build on this foundation. We are seeking solutions that integrate data
from portable physiological and air quality monitors, producing a
combined picture that is meaningful and usable. The statutory authority
for this challenge competition is Section 105 of the America COMPETES
Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-358) and section 103 of the
Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7403. This challenge addresses the mission of
the NIEHS to conduct and support programs with respect to factors in
the environment that affect human health, directly or indirectly. 42
U.S.C. 285.
DATES: Phase 1: Effective on June 6, 2012. Submission period ends
October 5, 2012, 11:59 p.m. et. Phase 2: Effective on November 19,
2012. Submission period ends May 19, 2013, 11:59 p.m. et.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Denice Shaw, EPA, 202-564-1108; Adam
Wong, ONC, 202-720-2866.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Subject of Challenge Competition
The ``My Air, My Health Challenge'' is a multidisciplinary call to
innovators and software developers (``Solvers'') to enable near-real-
time, location-specific monitoring and reporting of air pollutants and
potentially related physiological parameters, using a personal/portable
integrated system to assess connections between the two (``sensor
systems''). The system must link air-pollutant concentrations with
physiological data, provide geocoded and time-stamped files in an easy-
to-use format, and transmit this data via existing networks to a
central data repository provided by EPA and HHS.
The challenge is structured in 2 phases:
Phase 1--Project Plan (no more than 15 pages, not including
appendices that may consist of diagrams/schematics, bibliography, and
other supplementary materials).
1. Propose a plausible link between health outcomes and airborne
pollutants (chemical species and/or particulates), and provide evidence
to support a plausible and physiologically meaningful relationship
between airborne pollutants and physiological metrics in a defined
population.
2. Propose a prototype design and development plan for an
integrated multi-sensor and data management system that may be easily
worn or carried by individuals within the defined target community/
population.
3. Conceptualize data generation, management (may include
processing & on-board storage), and transmission functionality of the
device.
4. Propose a small-scale proof-of-concept study to validate the
proposed prototype.
5. Study design process must include input from the target
community/population.
Phase 2--Proof-of-Concept Pilot Project.
6. Finalists attend an event for feedback, questions, and business/
entrepreneurial resources prepared by Challenge sponsors (EPA, HHS ONC,
NIEHS).
7. Solvers develop the proposed prototype and execute experimental
validation of the system to bring together data from personal air
quality and physiological monitors, showing how these types of data and
sensors can be integrated for practical use by health and environmental
agencies, and by individual citizens. Proof-of-concept data must
illustrate the accuracy and precision of the raw data and of any
processed data produced by the system.
Level of Focus for Health/Pollution connections: Systems must track
airborne pollutants and physiological parameters for a known or
plausible health-pollution link. Solvers must be able to justify their
chosen combination with research citations and to optimize the air
sampling parameters (volume, frequency, etc.) and physiological
measurement parameters to provide resolution appropriate to the
specific pollutant, or combination of pollutants, and related health
implications. Challenge Sponsors will provide examples of such links
for illustrative purposes (appended to the challenge announcement), but
will not limit Solvers to these particular cases.
Sensor development: Solvers are not expected to develop novel
sensors for this challenge, but are not restricted to commercially
available sensors. They may use sensors that are currently in the
development or piloting stage, but must show that the sensor will be
ready to use in functional tests--at least at a small scale--in time
for the Phase 2 proof-of-concept demonstration. Instruments must be
well characterized in terms of precision, accuracy and sensitivity.
Integrated sensor systems must be able to transmit data to the central
repository (in real time, or store and forward) using existing data
networks (e.g. 3G, LTE, or WiFi), or able to connect with personal
devices (e.g., smart phones) that have such capability. Solvers must
enable appropriate calibration and error checking capabilities,
although these need not be onboard the portable monitoring components.
Data Requirements and Constraints: Data transmitted by the
integrated devices to a centralized data repository must enable the
following to be understood from transmitted data:
1. Indicators of device functionality, including any results of
automated
[[Page 33743]]
system diagnostics, calibrations, or error logs
2. The device unique identifier, including any paired communication
device identifier (particularly important if bidirectional
communication functionality is proposed)
3. Date and time the data were collected/measurements made (start
and end timestamp)
4. The location of the device during data collection (geocode)--if
sampling occurs over several minutes or longer Solvers should consider
that users may be using transportation and that analysis should ideally
show locations between sample start and end
5. Raw measurement data (quantitative or semi-quantitative) as well
as any processed data or combined
6. Quality control metrics indicating, for instance, whether the
device is being worn/carried or functioning correctly. Error checking
can occur either prior to or after data transmission, but is an
essential component.
The preferred data transmission file format is comma separated
value (.csv) or variants thereof. Alternatively, encrypted binary files
are also acceptable. Encryption keys/codes should be provided to the
Challenge Sponsors so that data can be accessed at the central data
repository.
Pollutant Focus: Solvers will be required to include at least one
air pollution metric--although at their discretion they may include
multiple air pollution metrics and/or other environmental metrics such
as noise level and UV exposure. The focus, however, will be on chemical
and/or particulate air pollutants.
Physiological Parameter Focus: Solvers will be required to include
at least one physiological metric--although at their discretion they
may include multiple physiological metrics and/or other person-oriented
metrics such as behaviors and social interactions. The focus, however,
will be on physical parameters (e.g., heart rate, breathing, pulse
oxygenation), and their connection to pollutants.
Physical Guidelines for Sensors: At least one component of the
sensor system must be wearable or carryable, and all components should
have a minimal burden and be minimally obtrusive. The overall sensor
system must focus on personal and local metrics (i.e., measuring air
quality in the immediate vicinity of the wearer). Wearable components
must be the right size and weight for their target audience (e.g., no
more than 300 g for a child). Sampling frequency and area must be
appropriate to the pollutants and physiological metrics of interest, as
well as to the context of data collection (e.g., by walkers, cyclists
or passengers on public transportation). The sensor system must include
an on-board data buffer for when network access is unavailable, and may
also at the Solver's discretion include personal media to which data
may be downloaded for permanent or temporary storage. Open source
hardware and software are desired but not required.
Measurement Guidelines for Sensors: Accuracy, detection limit,
measurement range, and sensitivity of all sensors must be at sufficient
resolution to record health-relevant changes in air pollutant(s) and
physiological marker(s). If processing of the data is required in order
to achieve this (e.g., normalization, increasing signal-to-noise
ratios), the Solver must include the algorithm and its scientific basis
(i.e., previously collected data and/or appropriate citations) in their
report. Alternatively, centralized processing that enables parsing of
local data, in order to increase data robustness and reduce false
positive signals, may be used. If such an approach is determined to be
useful, Solvers must outline suitable strategies and/or boundary
criteria. In either case, solvers must communicate the overall
uncertainty level of the final system output
Community Involvement: The sensor system must address a need in a
specific community or population. In addition to scientific evidence
supporting that need, Solvers must also seek and document community
input. Representatives of the affected community should provide
feedback on the pilot project both during conceptualization (Phase 1),
and throughout the pilot study (Phase 2). This is not intended to
override the Solvers' scientific judgment on technical issues, but to
ensure that the project is respectful of local knowledge, community
identity, and needs. Projects must include feedback to the community
regarding both technical success (e.g., whether sensors performed as
planned) and results (e.g., any correlations found in the data).
Scaling and Future Plans: While Phase 2 requires only a small-scale
proof-of-concept project, final submissions for this phase must include
a description of how the project could or will be extended and
expanded. In general, Solvers are asked to propose concrete next steps
that might be carried out with more time or resources available.
Eligibility Rules for Participating in the Competition
To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge, an individual
or entity shall have complied with all the requirements under this
section and Federal Register Notice.
This challenge is open to any Solver who is (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. Solvers may submit more than one entry.
Eligibility for Phase 2 is conditional upon being selected as a
Phase 1 Finalist. Eligibility for a prize award is contingent upon
fulfilling all requirements set forth herein. An individual, team, or
entity that is currently on the Excluded Parties List (https://www.epls.gov/)
will not be selected as a Finalist or Winner.
Employees of EPA, HHS, and the reviewers or any other company or
individual involved with the design, production, execution, or
distribution of the challenge and their immediate family (spouse,
parents and step-parents, siblings and step-siblings, and children and
step-children) and household members (people who share the same
residence at least three (3) months out of the year) are not eligible
to participate.
An individual or entity may not be a Federal entity or Federal
employee acting within the scope of their employment. Federal employees
seeking to participate in this challenge outside the scope of their
employment should consult their ethics official prior to developing a
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.
Federal grantees may not use Federal funds to develop COMPETES Act
challenge applications unless consistent with the purpose of their
grant award. (Grantees should consult with their cognizant Grants
Management Official to make this determination.) 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.
[[Page 33744]]
Liability and Indemnification: By participating in this
competition, Solvers 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 competition, whether
the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or
otherwise. By participating in this competition, Solvers agree to
indemnify the Federal Government against third party claims for damages
arising from or related to competition activities.
Insurance: Based on the subject matter of the competition, 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 competition participation, Solvers
are not required to obtain liability insurance or demonstrate financial
responsibility in order to participate in this competition.
Registration Process for Participants
To register for this challenge participants may do any of the
following:
[ssquf] Access the www.challenge.gov Web site and search for the
``My Air, My Health Challenge''.
[ssquf] 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.
[ssquf] Access the Innocentive challenge Web site at
www.innocentive.com/myairmyhealth.
Amount of the Prize
[ssquf] Phase 1: $15,000 each for up to four Finalists who are
selected to move on to Phase 2.
[ssquf] Phase 2: $100,000 to the Winner.
Awards may be subject to Federal income taxes.
Payment of the Prize
HHS and EPA prizes awarded under this competition will be paid by
electronic funds transfer and may be subject to Federal income taxes.
HHS and EPA will comply with the Internal Revenue Service withholding
and reporting requirements, where applicable.
Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected
The review panel will make selections based upon the following
criteria in Phase 1:
[ssquf] Strength of evidence and/or argumentation regarding the
linkage between air pollutant and physiological effect.
[ssquf] Potential significance of technology and eventual benefit
to target population(s).
[ssquf] Viability of proposed sensor technologies to detect and
quantify pollutants and their effects, and provide physiologically
relevant health and air quality data.
[ssquf] Viability of the proposed data reporting technology
(communication to a centralized data repository provided by EPA and
HHS)
[ssquf] Viability of the proposed project plan.
[ssquf] Viability of the proposed instrument design as a wearable/
portable device.
[ssquf] Viability of the proposed proof-of-concept study (low
complexity is preferred).
[ssquf] Appropriate use of community input in designing proof-of-
concept study.
The review panel will make selections based upon the following
criteria in Phase 2:
[ssquf] Sensors: Successful technical collection of both health and
environmental data
[ssquf] Data Reporting: Successful formatting and transmission of
data
[ssquf] Data processing and evaluation
[ssquf] Community Involvement and Interaction
Additional Information
Intellectual Property Rights: Upon submission, each Solver warrants
that he or she is the sole author and owner of the work, that the work
is wholly original with the Solver (or is an improved version of an
existing work that the Solver has sufficient rights to use--including
the substantial improvement of existing open-source work) and that it
does not infringe any copyright or any other rights of any third party
of which Solver is aware. Each Solver also warrants that the work is
free of malware.
(a) Copyright. By participating in this competition, each Solver
hereby grants to the Federal government an irrevocable, paid-up,
royalty-free, nonexclusive worldwide license to reproduce, distribute
copies, display, create derivative works, and publicly post, link to,
and share, the work or parts thereof, including any parts for which it
has obtained rights from a third party, in any medium, for Federal
purposes. User warrants that it has obtained rights to any parts of the
work not authored by Solver adequate to convey the aforementioned
license. (b) Inventions. Finalists hereby grant to the Federal
government a nonexclusive, nontransferable, irrevocable, paid-up
license to practice or have practiced for or on behalf of the United
States any invention throughout the world made by Finalists that, if
patented, would cover the submission or its use.
Privacy, Data Security, Ethics, and Compliance
Solvers are required to identify and address privacy and security
issues in their proposed projects, and describe specific solutions for
meeting them.
In addition to complying with appropriate policies, procedures, and
protections for data that ensures all privacy requirements and
institutional policies are met, use of data should not allow the
identification of the individual from whom the data was collected.
Solvers are responsible for compliance with all applicable federal,
state, local, and institutional laws, regulations, and policy. These
may include, but are not limited to, HIPAA, HHS Protection of Human
Subjects regulations, and FDA regulations. If approvals (e.g., from
Institutional Review Boards) will be required to initiate project
activities in Phase 2, it is recommended that solvers apply for
approval at or before the Phase 1 submission deadline.
The following links are intended as a starting point for addressing
regulatory requirements, but should not be interpreted as a complete
list of resources on these issues:
HIPAA
Main link: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/index.html.
Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html.
Summary of the HIPAA Privacy Rule:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/summary/index.html.
Summary of the HIPAA Security Rule:
http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/srsummary.html.
Human Subjects--HHS
Office for Human Research Protections:
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/index.html.
Protection of Human Subjects Regulations:
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html.
Policy & Guidance:
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/policy/index.html.
Institutional Review Boards & Assurances:
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/assurances/index.html.
[[Page 33745]]
Human Subjects--FDA
Clinical Trials:
http://www.fda.gov/ScienceResearch/SpecialTopics/RunningClinicalTrials/
default.htm.
Office of Good Clinical Practice:
http://www.fda.gov/AboutFDA/CentersOffices/OfficeofMedicalProductsand
Tobacco/OfficeofScienceandHealthCoordination/ucm2018191.
Consumer Protection--FTC
Bureau of Consumer Protection:
http://business.ftc.gov/privacy-and-security.
Authority: 15 U.S.C. 3719.
Dated: May 31, 2012.
Farzad Mostashari,
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2012-13834 Filed 6-6-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-45-P
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