The U.S. Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has announced a new program designed to accelerate the development of innovations to resolve challenges in healthcare IT.
The Investing in Innovations (i2) initiative is an effort to use competitions and prizes to spur healthcare IT innovations. The ONC has awarded nearly $5 million to Capital Consulting and Health 2.0 to fund projects supporting innovations in research.
Examples of health IT competition topics developed in consultation with Capital Consulting and Health 2.0 include:
- Applications that generate results for patients, caregivers, and/or clinicians by providing them with access to information that can support real needs and immediate decisions
- Applications that facilitate secure and effective sharing of health information with members of a social network
- Applications that allow individuals to connect during natural disasters and other periods of emergency
- Tools that facilitate exchange of health information by allowing individuals to customize the privacy allowances for personal health records
