The Department of Health and Human Services has named three finalists for a cancer survivor support mobile application challenge.
Each team was awarded $5,000 by the Office for the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology and will compete for $25,000 grand prize. HHS officials named the finalists during this week's Health Datapalooza in the nation's capital.
The challenge, launched by the ONC in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute and MedStartr, a healthcare crowdfunding portal, will award the grand prize to the app creator who develops the best tool to help cancer survivors better manage their transition from oncology specialty care to primary care.
"We're also very excited because this is the first innovation challenge that's focused on the needs of cancer survivors," said Abdul Shaikh, program director at NCI. "And for us, that's a very important population that we're targeting with this challenge. What we're looking for is innovation that can really address the tough problems that cancer survivors face."
Adam Wong, management and program analyst for the ONC, said the estimated 14 million annual cancer survivors in the United States need a tool to better manage their health following specialty care treatment. "It gives us (an) opportunity to raise awareness about a specific topic that we feel either is not being addressed fittingly or needs superior options," he said.
The finalists are:
- Medable's Together, which is designed to help patients with medication and symptom tracking, personalized disease surveillance and health info, collaborative care planning and data sharing.
- JourneyForward, which offers patients treatment summaries, what to watch for and expect, symptom management tools and follow-up care schedules.
- PatientsWithPower, which is tailored to women who are newly diagnosed with breast cancer and tracks diagnoses, presents personalized treatment options and shows a timeline of treatment and its impacts
With the support of the NCI, the ONC launched the Crowds Care for Cancer: Supporting Survivors challenge in April as part of its Investing in Innovation program. The i2 program, managed by Health 2.0, uses prizes and challenges to facilitate innovation and obtain solutions to health IT problems.
The applications submitted by the finalists will be judged on their potential to enhance the health and healthcare experience of cancer survivors.
