The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) this month announced the Phase 1 winners of the Move Health Data Forward Challenge.

The challenge hopes to create application programming interface (API) solutions that allow individuals to securely and electronically authorize health data movement among clinicians, hospitals, family members, and more.

The 10 finalists from Phase 1 will receive $5,000 based on their submitted proposals describing the technical, operational, financial, and business aspects of the solution. They will then proceed to Phase 2, where five finalists will be awarded $20,000 based on their solution prototypes.

“As health information technology becomes more accessible, consumers are playing an even greater role in how and when their health information is exchanged or shared,” said Vindell Washington, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. “The Move Health Data Forward Challenge will help consumers unleash their health data and put it to work.”

The 10 Phase 1 winners are:

  • TrustedCare and ARM: Patients can interact with multiple providers in a secure, authenticated, and auditable way.
  • CedarBridge Group: Consumers can consent to share their health information–whether in whole or a particular section–with providers from their smartphone.
  • EMR Direct: Patient data is integrated from multiple data holders.
  • Foxhall Wythe: Mobile users can securely maintain their health information and transmit the information to their providers.
  • kreateIoT, Technatomy, & Koncero: Patients can access their health information electronically and actively direct the flow of health information to make informed decisions.
  • Lush Group: Patients can import their health information from their primary care provider’s electronic health record (EHR) system, define how it is shared with others, and authorize electronic access.
  • Live and Leave Well: Users can create, manage, and share end-of-life plans.
  • SpunJohn Consultants: Patients can easily, simply, and securely store and access their complete health record while sharing with their providers from any device.
  • Thoughtkeg Application Services Corp.: Patients have a portal Web application that is responsive to users and allows patients to control the movement of their health data.
  • Resilient Network Systems, Webshield & SAFE Biopharma: Patients can access and share their health records on demand after the software verifies their identity, locates and electronically requests their records, and delivers them to a secure cloud-based personal storage service.

The Move Health Data Forward Challenge builds on ONC’s work with the Health Relationship Trust (HEART) Workgroup, which works to “harmonize and develop a set of privacy and security specifications that enable an individual to control the authorization of access to RESTful health-related data sharing APIs, and to facilitate the development of interoperable implementations of these specifications by others.”

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