Tune-in to the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge Webinar on 9/8 & More News...
Tune-in to the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge Webinar 9/8
Catalyst is excited to announce the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge Webinar, taking place on Tuesday, September 8th from 1-2PM ET. The webinar will provide the audience with a more in-depth explanation of the newly launched COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge, in which innovators are being asked to submit their novel analytic approaches to utilizing COVID-19 symptom data to improve situational awareness & early detection capabilities. Ultimately, following the two phases of the Challenge, a 1st place winner will be awarded $50,000 and a runner up will be awarded $25,000.
The webinar, moderated by Catalyst, will feature our Challenge partners from the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, the Joint Program in Survey Methodology (JPSM), Carnegie Mellon University, and Resolve to Save Lives, focusing on the purpose of the Challenge, background on the data, public health implications, Facebook’s role in the challenge, Challenge logistics, and more!
Don’t miss this opportunity, be sure to join on 9/8 to learn more!
Register HERE!
More about the Challenge: https://bit.ly/symptomdata
Announcing The COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge
In collaboration with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, Resolve to Save Lives, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Maryland, Catalyst @ Health 2.0 is excited to announce the launch of The COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge. The COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge is looking for novel analytic approaches that use COVID-19 Symptom Survey data to enable earlier detection and improved situational awareness of the outbreak by public health and the public.
How the Challenge Works:
In Phase I, innovators submit their novel analytic approach addressing the challenge topic and using Symptom Survey public data (see challenge submission criteria for more). Judges will evaluate the entries based on Validity, Scientific Rigor, Impact, and User Experience and award five semi-finalists $5,000 each. They will present their analytic approaches to a judging panel and three semi-finalists will be selected to advance to Phase II.
In Phase II, finalists develop a prototype (simulation or visualization) using their analytic approach and will present their prototypes in an unveiling event, during which a first place winner and runner up will be selected. The first place winner will be awarded $50,000 and the runner up (second place) will be awarded $25,000 to further develop their analytic approach.
The winning analytic design will be featured on the Facebook Data For Good website and the winning team will have the opportunity to participate in a discussion forum with representatives from public health agencies.
Phase I applications for the challenge are due Tuesday, September 29th 2020 11:59:59 PM ET.
Learn more about the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge HERE.
Indu Subaiya, co-founder of Catalyst @ Health 2.0 (“Catalyst”) sits down with Farzad Mostashari (@Farzad_MD), Challenge Chair, to discuss the launch of the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge. Indu and Farzad walk through the movement around open data as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the challenge goals, partners, evaluation criteria, and prizes. Click HERE to watch.
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER/WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Entry deadline September 29th, 2020 at 11:59:59 pm EDT. Open to legal residents US and worldwide who are at least the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence, excluding Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, or other countries or regions subject to U.S. export controls or sanctions. Void where prohibited by law. Participation subject to Official Rules. See Official Rules for entry requirements, judging criteria and full details. Administrator: Health 2.0 LLC. Sponsor: Facebook, Inc. Partners: Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland, and Resolve to Save Lives.
Announcing: The COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge
In Partnership with the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy, Resolve to Save Lives, Carnegie Mellon University, and University of Maryland, Catalyst @ Health 2.0 is excited to announce the launch of The COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge. The COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge is looking for novel analytic approaches that use COVID-19 Symptom Survey data to enable earlier detection and improved situational awareness of the outbreak by public health and the public.
How the Challenge Works:
In Phase I, innovators submit a white paper (“digital poster”) summarizing the approach, methods, analysis, findings, relevant figures and graphs of their analytic approach using Symptom Survey public data (see challenge submission criteria for more). Judges will evaluate the entries based on Validity, Scientific Rigor, Impact, and User Experience and award five semi-finalists $5,000 each. Semi-finalists will present their analytic approaches to a judging panel and three semi-finalists will be selected to advance to Phase II. The semi-finalists will develop a prototype (simulation or visualization) using their analytic approach and present their prototype at a virtual unveiling event. Judges will select a grand prize winner and the runner up (2nd place). The grand prize winner will be awarded $50,000 and the runner up will be awarded $25,000.The winning analytic design will be featured on the Facebook Data For Good website and the winning team will have the opportunity to participate in a discussion forum with representatives from public health agencies.
Phase I applications for the challenge are due Tuesday, September 29th, 2020 11:59:59 PM ET.
Learn more about the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge HERE.
Challenge participants will leverage aggregated data from the COVID-19 symptom surveys conducted by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Maryland, in partnership with Facebook Data for Good. Approaches can integrate publicly available anonymized datasets to validate and extend predictive utility of symptom data and should assess the impact of the integration of symptom data on identifying inflection points in state, local, or regional COVID outbreaks as well guiding individual and policy decision-making.
These are the largest and most detailed surveys ever conducted during a public health emergency, with over 25M responses recorded to date, across 200+ countries and territories and 55+ languages. Challenge partners look forward to seeing participant’s proposed approaches leveraging this data, as well as welcome feedback on the data’s usefulness in modeling efforts.
Indu Subaiya, President of Catalyst @ Health 2.0 (“Catalyst”) sits down with Farzad Mostashari, CEO of Aledade, former National Coordinator of Health IT, and Challenge Chair, to discuss the launch of the COVID-19 Symptom Data Challenge. Indu and Farzad walk through the movement around open data as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the challenge goals, partners, evaluation criteria, and prizes.
Video Transcript:
Indu Subaiya:
I'm delighted to be talking today with Farzad Mostashari about the COVID-19 symptom data challenge, in partnership with Facebook Data For Good, the Delphi Group at Carnegie Mellon University, and the joint program on survey methodology at the University of Maryland. So thank you for being here as we launch this challenge. Help us set the stage, because on March 7th of this year, you noticed something unusual going on in New York City. Tell us about that.
Farzad Mostashari:
I was part of the first group of researchers 20 years ago to say “There's all this data that is part of the universe floating around that we're not using for public health purposes. What if we did?” The urgency at that time was around pandemics and bio terrorism both.
Farzad Mostashari:
And we developed this whole field of what became known as “syndromic surveillance”, public health surveillance, real time epidemiology, where we were like, "What if you tap into what's going on and apply these new statistical methods?" So at that time, the stone that we polished was emergency room visits and saying, "Can we receive all these data about emergency room visits happening in New York City?” And now it's national. And be able to track, not diagnosed cases of anything, but syndromes. Is there a respiratory syndrome? Is there difficulty breathing? Is there influenza-like illness going on in the community?" And we set up these systems. And one of the other things we did in New York City, which a lot of other jurisdictions didn't do, was we created a public facing transparency tool view of that.
Farzad Mostashari:
So 10 years later, I was sitting in my basement like so many other people worrying about what's going on with COVID. And now at that time in New York City, there were two diagnosed cases of COVID. But there was a lot of concern. And I went on that website, and it's a public website, but people just didn't know about it. And I clicked through, and I saw that cases of people going to the emergency room with respiratory distress, with difficulty breathing, with cough and fever had doubled and tripled just in the past few days. And what that told me was there are not two cases of COVID in New York City. There are tens of thousands of cases and they're doubling every three days.
Farzad Mostashari:
It took two weeks between that realization and when the schools were shut down, when the city was shut down. The promise and the premise here is that if we trust those signals, if those are trusted signals, we don't have to have hundreds of thousands of people infected and tens of thousands of people die. We can intervene sooner. The public and policy makers can both make decisions based on data that is more timely.
Indu Subaiya:
It seems almost there are three requisite factors that play into this vision that you've really set up beautifully. And one is that you need open data. You need access to data that you've always evangelized for and built in New York City and other places. You need to have mechanisms for early detection and early warning. But there's something else you've always advocated for, which is the engagement of citizen scientists. So speak to how those underpinnings of the vision came together to design this challenge specifically.
Farzad Mostashari:
So I got to hear about this incredible effort that's underway that no one knows about (to a first order of approximation) which is that there are millions of surveys a week being done all over the globe, 70 plus countries, and in every state and territory in the US where millions of people every day, they go on Facebook, they see that there's an opportunity to take a survey about COVID from an outside university, Carnegie Mellon, or University of Maryland for the global data. They click on that and they leave Facebook and they go to this other webpage and they fill out a survey that asks questions around, "Have you had symptoms in the past 24 hours? Has anyone in your household? Do you know people [who have]? Do you wear masks? Have you been careful when you go outside?" And they're answering these questions and they're actually being statistically weighed so that it's not a convenient sample, it's not whoever happens to have a thermometer at home or whatever. It's like real time, reliable information. But it's not being used!
Farzad Mostashari:
Tom Frieden, my former boss and now leading Resolve To Save Lives (a wonderful global public health organization) and I were brought in to give our thoughts about this effort. And we were both like, "This is amazing. You should push it out." And they pushed out the data in an open API. Anyone can go to the Delphi CMU. And three months later, it's still not part of the Pantheon of data that we're using to assess what's happening with the COVID. Despite all the shortcomings in all the other data systems, people aren't using it.
Farzad Mostashari:
And I think to your point, the data is there, but the engagement on polishing the stone hasn't occurred. The validation of it hasn't occurred because we don't have enough eyes on it. And it is not integrated into people's understanding of what they should do. “Should I send my kid to school? Should I go to the store? Do I wear a mask this week?” These are real decisions that real people have to make every day, and we're not giving them the benefit of what might be something that could be a real game changer.
Indu Subaiya:
Well, we've seen firsthand in some of the early analyses with this data. Speak a little bit to just some of the insights that you've seen where symptom data can tell us something differently and earlier than case rates, death rates, the kinds of data inputs that we're currently used to seeing, for the ways that this can do better.
Farzad Mostashari:
Yeah. So theoretically, let's think about the advantages. Over the three major sources of data, if I said to you, a citizen scientist, "How do we know what's going on with COVID in our community? How do we know if an outbreak is occurring? How do we know if the outbreak is peaking? How do we know if it's coming down?" There's three sources of data that we are trying to look at. And all three are flawed. The first is obviously how many diagnosed cases we have. Case numbers, case positivity, lab tests. Well, the problem with that is we had a huge dearth of lab capacity early on. There are still parts of the country and parts of the world where there is not great lab capacity. And that lab capacity is changing. And even when we do the tests, they're delayed now by seven to 10 days.
Farzad Mostashari:
And the positivity can't necessarily be relied on either, because it depends on what population you're testing. If you turn on testing of a bunch of young people, you might have a different rate. If you start testing asymptomatic people, you might have a different rate. If the people follow the CDC's recommendation and they stopped testing asymptomatics, you can have an increase ... So it's very much dependent on testing behavior. You're seeing it through this lens of testing behavior and that lens can distort.
Farzad Mostashari:
The second source of data could be deaths. Deaths are highly reliable. They're still underdiagnosed. One of our scientific committee members, Dan Weinberger, and a group of other researchers and I published an article looking at excess deaths compared to COVID deaths. And there's actual discrepancies between those two, but death is a pretty hard data point. The problem is it's weeks delayed. If we waited until we saw deaths to say that we have a problem, the outbreak would have run wild through a city before we can even address it.
Farzad Mostashari:
And then the third source of now traditional surveillance are the syndromic surveillance, emergency room, hospitalization, syndromic data that we pioneered 20 years ago. And the problem with those is that the lens you're seeing those through is health seeking behavior. And if people change their likelihood of going to the emergency room, going to doctor's offices, it obscures that lens.
Farzad Mostashari:
So with all three of these, the symptom survey data presents unique advantages. Compared to deaths, it's much more timely. In fact, compared to any of the other data sources, you would expect it to be the first indicator. It's completely unrelated to health seeking behavior or testing availability. And if you think about, and particularly in the global context, there are many countries where the lab capacity is really challenged, and even death surveillance, mortality surveillance is really challenged. This could be a major tool.
Farzad Mostashari:
That all having been said, what we have now are very preliminary evidence that this could be useful. And what we're looking for are many, many more people to put eyes on the data and find ways to polish those stones, to have the highest-value ways, for society, of using this information.
Indu Subaiya:
So available to all the citizen scientists in the world as of today will be access to these datasets through APIs, through aggregate CSVs. And Farzad, what will be the primary challenge questions that they'll be able to engage with and tackle?
Farzad Mostashari:
The main question that we're asking is can you find a way to validate whether adding in the symptom data into all the other existing data sources we have can improve the sensitivity, the specificity, the timeliness of our ability to detect what's going on with the outbreak. What are the inflection points? When is it taking off? When is it flattening? When is it coming down? And to be able to provide useful information for policy makers and the public in guiding their decisions.
Farzad Mostashari:
So we're leaving it pretty wide open, right? Come with your methods, come with your visualization. Do you want to look at it on an age stratified basis? Do you want to combine it with lab data? Do you want to incorporate the mask wearing information? Do you want to think about the granularity of it in space? Do you want to look county level, HR level, state level? Do you want to look at it in terms of time? Do you want to look at it by week or by day? All of those, do you want to apply statistical methods, clustering methods? You figure it out. But answer the question: “what is the best case to be made for how one would incorporate this data into the Pantheon of public health surveillance tools?”
Indu Subaiya:
And even though we have the academics, if you will, working on this, we're really looking for all comers.
Farzad Mostashari:
All comers.
Indu Subaiya:
Even if you're not a trained epidemiologist, but you have an interest in this data, we are making it available as of today. And contestants will have four weeks to come up with their analyses. And then we'll have some semifinalists that will present to the scientific committee. And at that point, up to five teams will be chosen to advance to a second round where they'll build visualizations and simulations, prototypes of this analysis in action. So as the contestants submit their analyses after the first four weeks, the scientific committee will be looking at certain criteria. What can people expect their submissions to be judged on?
Farzad Mostashari:
Well, I think it's kind of like having a special issue of a journal. We won't be as tough on the formatting and references as we would a real journal article, but we're basically doing the evaluation of the validity of the results.
Farzad Mostashari:
How convincing is the evidence that's being presented in terms of the additional utility of adding the symptom data and how? What are the methods that are being used? The second is the rigor with which these analyses are done. Have they considered biases confounding, some of the other potential causes for false associations? What are the limitations of that? The third is impact.
Farzad Mostashari:
If there's a method that's so complicated that it takes 20 days to run on every day's worth of data, well, that's not going to have as much impact. But what is the real likelihood of impact?
Farzad Mostashari:
And related to that, but distinct, is the user experience. How easy is it to explain? How easy is it to visualize? How easy is it to make actionable those results from the analysis? These four criteria are going to be used in the first phase. And then when we do the presentations and then with the final result, when we select the grand winner of ... What is it, $50,000? That's huge!
Indu Subaiya:
That's right. And the second place gets $25,000.
Farzad Mostashari:
$25,000! Those are the same criteria are going to be used for each of those levels.
Indu Subaiya:
Fantastic. I also want to remind folks that outside data can be brought in as long as it's made publicly available so that we can continue to feed this repository of access to data, and hopefully really combat this epidemic together.
Indu Subaiya:
So Farzad, one of the ways that we can help contestants understand the data sets being made available is there's so many partners here. Where did these data sets come from, and how does privacy work given that people have taken these surveys?
Farzad Mostashari:
The surveys are suggested to folks who are on Facebook. But then when someone clicks on that banner ad that says 'do you want to take a COVID survey,' they leave the Facebook environment entirely, and they go off to the University of Maryland or Carnegie Mellon's website.
Farzad Mostashari:
I think it's important for people to understand where the data comes from is from those anonymous surveys that are done by the universities. There is no access to the line-level data for the folks at Facebook. They don't want it, they don't have it.
Farzad Mostashari:
But that micro data is actually available to university researchers. But there are extracts made from that, which are anonymized, minimum cell size at the various levels of granularity that are currently being made public through APIs and we will make a CSV download available as well.
Farzad Mostashari:
Those are fully anonymized, fully aggregated. No one's identity is obviously going to be impacted, just says “in this county this week, there were these many cases of people who complained of having recent cough symptoms” and so forth.
Farzad Mostashari:
This is part of the Facebook Data for Good project, and I certainly believe that this is data for good.
Indu Subaiya:
And Farzad, what is your hope as these teams come forward with these ideas? Where can these findings be deployed? And what is your vision for where it goes from here outside of the challenge?
Farzad Mostashari:
Our hope is that these become just a part of the, alongside deaths and cases and hospitalizations, it's just part of what people look at. So when you go to COVID tracking or COVID Exit Strategy or the Hopkins site or the CDC, or when states or cities or governors are looking at their data, this is one of the factors that they also consider. But also the public. As Tom Frieden likes to say, "When you check the weather to see if you should take an umbrella, you should be checking a website that tells you what's going on with COVID activity in your community”- that can help guide many of the decisions that we have to make, unfortunately on a daily basis, until we have herd immunity or a vaccine, or both."
Indu Subaiya:
Absolutely. So some real, very impactful outcomes expected from this challenge. It's not just an academic exercise. Folks evaluating the finalists will be looking for how to adopt these algorithms and these visualizations into their public health dashboards, into their decision making processes. So it's a really incredibly exciting opportunity.
Indu Subaiya:
One of the things this challenge will be doing is inviting people to join a Slack channel so that they can communicate with each other. We don't see this as a one-time submission and then off you go, but really as a means to engage the community. That's always been at the forefront of what you've evangelized with the health technology community.
Farzad Mostashari:
None of us are as smart as all of us.
Indu Subaiya:
We'll go live today. And I just wanted to have a chance for you, Farzad, to share the vision behind it and what good looks like. So we're really excited to be helping support the challenge mechanism itself here at Catalyst. So thank you so much.
Farzad Mostashari:
And thank you and the team for helping sponsor this. And I hope the contestants will have a wonderful experience.
Indu Subaiya:
Thank you.
Participation subject to Official Rules NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER/WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Entry deadline September 29th, 2020 at 11:59:59 pm EDT. Open to legal residents US and worldwide who are at least the age of majority in their jurisdiction of residence, excluding Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, North Korea, Sudan, or other countries or regions subject to U.S. export controls or sanctions. Void where prohibited by law. Participation subject to Official Rules. See Official Rules for entry requirements, judging criteria and full details. Administrator: Health 2.0 LLC. Sponsor: Facebook, Inc. Partners: Duke Margolis Center for Health Policy, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Maryland, and Resolve to Save Lives.
At-Home Care Startup Plans Expansion with Humana & More News...
At-Home Care Startup Heal Plans Expansion with $100M Investment from Humana
Home healthcare provider Heal is expanding with $100 million in new funding from Humana. Humana will work with Heal to expand its footprint to new markets, including Chicago, Charlotte and Houston. Heal will also use the funds to expand the services that it offers, including potentially offering physical therapy and dermatology. Heal makes medical appointments more convenient, especially for patients with chronic conditions or other potential health risks.
Announcing the RWJF Emergency Response Challenge Semi-Finalists
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Catalyst @ Health 2.0 are excited to announce the semi-finalists for their Innovation Challenges on Emergency Response for the General Public and Emergency Response for the Health Care System.
Emergency Response for the General Public Semi-Finalists:
Fresh EBT by Propel- A technology tool for SNAP families to address food insecurity & economic vulnerability in times of crisis.
CovidSMS- CovidSMS is a text message-based platform providing city-specific information and resources to help low-income communities endure COVID-19.
Front-Line Force- A platform that connects volunteers 1:1 with front-line healthcare workers to complete tasks for them in crises.
Binformed Covidata- Binformed is a clinically-driven comprehensive desktop + mobile infectious disease, epidemic + pandemic management tool targeting suppression and containment of diseases such as COVID-19.
Evva Health- Hub-and-Spoke model and A.I. Community Coordinator for individual and community-level personalization of support and resource coordination.
Emergency Response for the Health Care System Semi-Finalists:
Qventus- Qventus is a patient flow automation solution that applies AI / ML and behavioral science to help health systems optimize resources for Covid, create effective capacity, and reduce frontline burnout.
Path Check- Path Check provides privacy first, free, open source solutions for public health to supplement manual contact tracing, visualize hot spots, and interfaces with citizen-facing privacy first apps.
Tiatros Inc- The first mental health and social support platform that combines clinical expertise, peer communities and scalable technology to advance mental wellbeing and to sustain meaningful behavioral change.
Hikma Health- Hikma is the first affordable, lightweight, mobile, cloud-based EHR that provides dynamic data insights to physicians in refugee and under-resourced settings.
University Hospitals Ventures- UH Innovates is a crowdsourcing platform for University Hospitals' 30k employees to generate, iterate, and implement ideas in real-time, within crisis response and beyond.
The five teams will receive $1,000 and advance to the next round of the competition. Three finalists will be chosen with the help of a panel of judges to compete in a virtual pitch (TBD). They will demo their technology virtually in front of a captivated audience of investors, provider organizations, health plans, tech companies, foundations, government officials and members of the media and compete for first, second, and third place. The winners will be awarded $25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second place, and $5,000 for third place.
Learn more about the semi-finalists for the Emergency Response for the General Public Challenge here.
Learn more about the semi-finalists for the Emergency Response for the Health Care System Challenge here.
RROCs: Tracking Innovative Health Tech Solutions in Response COVID-19
In collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Catalyst @ Health 2.0 is continuing to hold open calls connecting health care providers in need with health tech solutions. Rapid Response Open Calls (RROCs) are a fast way to source innovative solutions from Catalyst’s widespread network.
If you are a healthcare provider in need of #healthtech solutions or a healthcare stakeholder looking to participate in a subsidized RROC, you can learn more and apply HERE.
Announcing: RWJF Emergency Response Innovation Challenges Semi-finalists!
The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has underscored the need for efficient and innovative emergency response. Major health organizations, such as the American Hospital Association, have provided resources that can be utilized for organizational preparedness, caring for patients, and enabling the workforce during the pandemic.
As COVID-19 brought to light the lack of emergency response preparedness in the health care system, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Catalyst saw an opportunity to highlight digital health’s potential to support health care stakeholders and the general public. RWJF and Catalyst partnered to launch two Innovation Challenges on Emergency Response for the General Public and Emergency Response for the Health Care System.
The Emergency Response Innovation Challenges asked innovators to develop a health technology tool to support the needs of individuals as well as health care systems affected by a large-scale health crisis, such as a pandemic or natural disaster. The Challenges saw a record number of applications— nearly 125 applications were submitted to the General Public Challenge and over 130 applications were submitted to the Health Care System Challenge.
An expert panel of judges across the health tech, venture capital, design, and emergency response industries evaluated the entries and selected five semi-finalists from each challenge to advance to the next round. Congratulations to:
Emergency Response for the General Public Semi-Finalists:
Fresh EBT by Propel- A technology tool for SNAP families to address food insecurity & economic vulnerability in times of crisis.
CovidSMS- CovidSMS is a text message-based platform providing city-specific information and resources to help low-income communities endure COVID-19.
Front-Line Force- A platform that connects volunteers 1:1 with front-line healthcare workers to complete tasks for them in crises.
Binformed Covidata- Binformed is a clinically-driven comprehensive desktop + mobile infectious disease, epidemic + pandemic management tool targeting suppression and containment of diseases such as COVID-19.
Evva Health- Hub-and-Spoke model and A.I. Community Coordinator for individual and community-level personalization of support and resource coordination.
Emergency Response for the Health Care System Semi-Finalists:
Qventus- Qventus is a patient flow automation solution that applies AI / ML and behavioral science to help health systems optimize resources for Covid, create effective capacity, and reduce frontline burnout.
Path Check- Path Check provides privacy first, free, open source solutions for public health to supplement manual contact tracing, visualize hot spots, and interfaces with citizen-facing privacy first apps.
Tiatros Inc- The first mental health and social support platform that combines clinical expertise, peer communities and scalable technology to advance mental wellbeing and to sustain meaningful behavioral change.
Hikma Health- Hikma is the first affordable, lightweight, mobile, cloud-based EHR that provides dynamic data insights to physicians in refugee and under-resourced settings.
University Hospitals Ventures- UH Innovates is a crowdsourcing platform for University Hospitals' 30k employees to generate, iterate, and implement ideas in real-time, within crisis response and beyond.
The semi-finalists for the Challenges will be awarded $1,000 each to further develop their application or tool. After Phase II, three finalists from each Challenge will be chosen to compete at a virtual pitch hosted by Catalyst @ Health 2.0. They will demo their technology virtually to an audience of investors, provider organizations, health plans, tech companies, foundations, government officials and members of the media. Judges will select the first, second, and third place winners live after a series of short demos from the finalists. The winners will be awarded $25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second place, and $5,000 for third place.
For further updates on the semi-finalists of the RWJF Emergency Response for the General Public and Emergency Response for the Health Care System Challenge and other programs, subscribe to the Catalyst @ Health 2.0 Newsletter, and follow Catalyst on Twitter @catalyst_h20.
Prehab Tool and AI Win Big at the 2019 RWJF Live Pitch
Six finalists competed in an exciting live pitch for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 2019 Innovation Challenges at the 2019 Health 2.0 Annual Conference. They demoed their technologies in front of an audience of health care professionals, investors, provider organizations, and members of the media. The Home and Community Based Care Challenge sought technologies that support the advancement of at-home or community based care. The Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge called for solutions that increase access to services related to social determinants of health.
During the 3-day Conference, Jessica DaMassa, Executive Producer & Host of @WTF_Health, spoke with the finalists about their experience competing in the RWJF Innovation Challenges, their personal highlights, and what’s next!
Home and Community Based Care Innovation Challenge Finalists
First Place:
Ooney’s home-based web-app for older adults, Prehab Pal, delivers individualized prehabilitation to accelerate postoperative functional recovery and return to independence after surgery.
Second Place:
Wizeview uses artificial intelligence to automate and organize information collected during home visits, supporting the management of medically complex populations at the lowest cost per encounter.
Third Place:
Heal doctor house calls, paired with Heal Hub remote patient monitoring and telemedicine, offer a complete connected care solution for patients with chronic conditions.
Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge Finalists
First Place:
Social Impact AI Lab is a consortium of nonprofit social services agencies and technology providers with artificial intelligence solutions to address social disconnection in child welfare.
Second Place:
Community Resource Network’s Social Determinants of Health Client Profile creates a whole-person picture across physical, behavioral, and social domains to expedite help for those most at risk, fill in the gaps in care, and optimize well-being.
Third Place:
Open City Labs matches patients with community services and government benefits that address SDoH seamlessly. The platform will integrate with HIEs to automate referral, eligibility screening & benefits enrollment.
Congratulations to the six winners and thank you to all of the participants involved in both Innovation Challenges. To learn more about these efforts, you can visit the Home and Community Based Care and Social Determinants of Health Challenge websites.
Announcing GuideWell's Caring for Caregivers Challenge
Caregivers who care for aging, ill and disabled adult family members face a broad array of challenges within their daily lives. These challenges include stress, burnout, financial burdens, career sacrifices, sleep deprivation, depression, isolation, and lack of privacy. GuideWell believes it “takes a village” to sustainably support family caregivers, and that single point solutions are typically not broad enough to provide comprehensive relief to family caregivers.
GuideWell, in collaboration with Catalyst @ Health 2.0, is excited to announce the Caring for Caregivers Challenge -- a Health Innovation Challenge that seeks companies or non-profits with programs, platforms, technology systems or services that have the potential to eliminate critical challenges family caregivers face. Comprehensive approaches should connect caregivers to resources, technologies, corporate benefits, and community networks to help them with their unique personal health and wellness needs. Approaches should serve:
Family caregivers caring for family members over the age of 65
Family caregivers caring for partners or adult children under the age of 65 who are mentally disabled, permanently homebound due to a physical disability, terminally ill or who suffer from Alzheimer’s, congestive heart & pulmonary disease, cancer, and/or stroke.
The Caring for Caregivers Challenge is open to for-profit and non-profit organizations that earned a minimum of $250,000 in 2018 revenues. Applicants must be able to demonstrate their ability to develop and sustainably deploy innovative, scalable approaches that support the mental, social and economic health of family caregivers and improve their ability to care for loved ones.
In order to increase the scope and scale of support resources for family caregivers, applicants may consist of a team of diverse organizations that come together to jointly develop novel, scalable approaches. Team-based applicants must include at least two established corporate/non-profit entities on a team that jointly earned a minimum of $500,000 in 2018 revenues.
Key Benefits for Participants
● Potential to win up to $100,000 in non-dilutive funding to further expand your solution
● Ability to form strategic partnerships that result in a comprehensive approach that addresses multiple facets of family-based caregiving
● Opportunity to pilot your solution in partnership with GuideWell
● Access to mentors and subject matter experts in the health care industry
● No cost or equity requirements to participate (other than travel to program activities)
● Opportunity for potential industry PR and exposure in print, TV and digital marketing outlets
Applications are open! To learn more and apply, see: https://guidewellinnovation.com/health-innovation-challenge/
Announcing the Winners of the RWJF Innovation Challenges & More News
Announcing the Winners for the RWJF Innovation Challenges
The three finalists for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Home and Community Based Care and Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenges competed live at Health 2.0 on Monday, September 16th! They demoed their technology in front of a captivated audience of health care professionals, investors, provider organizations, and members of the media. Catalyst is proud to announce the first, second and third place winners.
Home and Community Based Care Innovation Challenge Winners
First Place: Ooney
Second Place: WizeView
Third Place: Heal
Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge Winners
First Place: Social Impact AI Lab New York
Second Place: Community Resource Network
Third Place: Open City Labs
To learn more about the Home and Community Based Care Innovation Challenge, click here.
To learn more about the Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge, click here.
CalMHSA's Help@Hand Project
Applications are open for an exciting pilot program hosted by The California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA). The Help@Hand Project is pursuing technological solutions that address a county-shared need to increase access to mental health services for a variety of target populations. CalMHSA is seeking prospective vendors to be part of a multi-year innovation project that will assess and pilot virtual mental health care services. A RFSQ (Request for Statement of Qualifications) will need to be completed by interested companies that have the capacity to meet one of more of the following criteria:
Implement technology-based mental health solutions accessed through multiple platforms (for example, computer, smartphone, etc.) to identify and engage individuals
Provide automated screening and assessments
Improve access to mental health and supportive services focused on prevention, early intervention, family support, social connectedness peer support
Decreased use of psychiatric hospitals and emergency services
This exciting multi-year innovation project will consist of an open application period (September 12th – October 7th, 2019) and a subsequent pilot period that allows the opportunity for vendors to be added to the Help@Hand Product Portfolio. After a vendor is included in the portfolio, all counties participating in the project can view company and product profiles and may choose to implement technologies at a larger scale.
If you have a digital technology that has the potential to save lives and empower the mental well-being of Californians, apply today!
Applications will close on October 7th, 2019.
Announcing the GuideWell Caring for Caregivers Challenge
Applications are now open for GuideWell’s Caring for Caregivers Challenge! The competition will award up to $100,000 to companies or non-profits with innovative digital solutions that have the potential to provide a comprehensive resource network for family caregivers. Applicants must be able to demonstrate their ability to develop and sustainably deploy innovative, scalable approaches that support the mental, social and economic health of family caregivers and improve their ability to care for loved ones.
If you are an organization or non-profit that focuses on improving the quality of life for family caregivers, apply today! For more details on eligibility criteria and the application process, please click here.
RECAP: The 13th Annual Health 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara, CA
This year's Health 2.0 Conference saw industry experts, thought leaders, and change drivers discuss complex and fascinating topics including challenges and areas of growth in health tech. The first day kicked-off with opening remarks by Catalyst's co-founders Matthew Holt and Indu Subaiya. It was followed by a keynote from Poppy Crum, Chief Scientist at Dolby Laboratories, who took the audience on a journey through people's natural processing and the surprising convergences it has with artificial intelligence. For example, Dr. Crum likened "technology-targeted neuroplasticity" to the regenerative capabilities of nuerons. Cris Ross, Chief Information Officer of Mayo Clinic, explored the need for data liberation in technological advancements. He shared his personal battle with cancer and the role of Mayo Clinic's advanced EHR system in combating the disease. The Conference concluded with Launch!, where attendees saw innovative companies debut their market-ready innovations and voted for their favorite company. The winner, OMNY, was awarded $5,000 and HIMSS mentorship to support their efforts to activate supply chain and billing data.
Announcing the RWJF Innovation Challenge Finalists To Compete Live at the Health 2.0 Conference!
Catalyst is excited to announce the finalists for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Home and Community Based Care and Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenges! The three finalists from each Challenge will compete in an exciting Live Pitch on September 16th, from 2:30-4:30pm, at this year’s Health 2.0 Conference in Santa Clara, CA. They will demo their technology in front of a captivated audience of health care professionals, investors, provider organizations, and members of the media. The first place winners will be featured on the Conference Main Stage, September 17th at 3:15pm. Winners will be awarded $40,000 for first place, $25,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place.
If you are attending the Health 2.0 Conference, join us to see the finalists showcase their innovative solutions.
Home & Community Based Care Innovation Challenge Finalists
Heal - Heal doctor house calls paired with Heal Hub remote patient monitoring and telemedicine offer a complete connected care solution for patients with chronic conditions.
Ooney - PrehabPal, a home-based web-app for older adults, delivers individualized prehabilitation to accelerate postoperative functional recovery and return to independence after surgery.
Wizeview - A company that uses artificial intelligence to automate and organize information collected during home visits, supporting the management of medically complex populations at the lowest cost per encounter.
Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge Finalists
Community Resource Network - The Social Determinants of Health Client Profile, a part of the Community Resource Network, creates a whole-person picture across physical, behavioral, and social domains to expedite help for those most at risk, fill in the gaps in care, and optimize well-being.
Open City Labs - A company that matches patients with community services and government benefits that address SDoH seamlessly. The platform will integrate with HIEs to automate referrals, eligibility screening & benefits enrollment.
Social Impact AI Lab - New York - A consortium of nonprofit social services agencies and technology providers with artificial intelligence solutions to address social disconnection in child welfare.
For the SDoH Challenge, innovators were asked to develop novel digital solutions that can help providers and/or patients connect to health services related to SDoH. Over 110 applications were submitted to the SDoH Challenge. For the Home and Community Based Care Challenge, applicants were asked to create technologies that support the advancement of at-home or community-based health care. Nearly 100 applications for Home and Community Based Care Challenge were received. After the submission period ended, an expert panel comprised of subject matter experts, venture capitalists, as well as designers evaluated the entries. Five semi-finalists from each challenge were selected to advance to the next round and further develop their solutions. The semi-finalists were evaluated again and the three finalists chosen.
For further updates on the finalists of the RWJF SDoH and Home and Community Based Care Innovation Challenge and other programs, please subscribe to the Catalyst @ Health 2.0 Newsletter, and follow us on Twitter @catalyst_h20.
Role of Innovation in Addressing Social Determinants of Health
Nearly a decade has passed since Healthy People 2020 positioned social determinants of health (SDoH) at the forefront of healthcare reform. As defined by the report, SDoH are the “conditions in the environment in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, and age, that affect a wide range of health, functioning, and quality of life outcomes.” Examples of social determinants include:
Resources to meet daily needs (e.g., safe housing and local food markets)
Educational, economic, and job opportunities
Community-based resources in support of community living and opportunities for recreational and leisure-time activities
Transportation
The ability to influence social determinants largely falls outside of the health care system’s reach. Therefore, a key to address opportunities for health involves collaboration between health care and different industries such as education, housing, and transportation. Both the public and private sectors have made significant efforts to bridge the gap between physical, mental, and social care by experimenting with non-traditional partnerships.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has spearheaded multiple programs with government agencies and community partners to achieve the goals outlined in Healthy People 2020. One of the most notable successes is the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, an initiative by the CDC with the Department of Housing & Urban Development and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Through housing rehabilitation, enforcement of housing and health codes, and partnerships with healthcare experts, the program helped Healthy People 2020 exceed their target of reducing blood lead level in children.
Other programs such as the “National Program to Eliminate Diabetes Related Disparities in Vulnerable Populations,” leveraged community partners and resources to increase food security, health literacy, and physical spaces for active living. In one of their projects, the program partnered with community health workers (promotoras) who spoke Spanish to engage with Hispanic/Latino communities where participation to Diabetes Self-Management Education (DSME) was low. The community health workers provided linguistically and culturally-sensitive materials that effectively increased participation in DSME among the targeted population. The outcomes from such initiatives have inspired more health and community organizations to work together to reduce health disparities.
Private health insurers have also joined the movement to influence SDoH as the shift towards value-based care incentivizes them to keep their beneficiaries healthy beyond clinical settings. Kaiser Permanente, which prides itself on helping their beneficiaries achieve total health, will launch their social care network Thrive Local to connect healthcare and social services providers. Thrive Local will be powered by Unite Us, a startup that helps providers refer social services, track outcomes, and collaborate care with community partners. Meanwhile, Blue Cross Blue Shield has invested nearly $40M into Solera Health to integrate social determinants data and resources into healthcare. Solera Health will use the funding to build out a network of digital health and social services providers and reimagine how health plans will pay social service providers. Both insurers are hopeful that the partnerships will promote better health outcomes and create a new care delivery model that effectively address social needs.
Developers and innovators are encouraged to create technology that can support the integration of SDoH collaborations into healthcare. Those who are interested in this space and have a digital solution should apply to the “Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Social Determinants of Health Innovation Challenge,” which seeks novel technology that helps providers and/or patients connect to health services related to SDoH.
Examples include but are not limited to:
Digital tools that pull data from non-profit services to assist health systems in serving diverse patient populations on an ongoing basis
Apps for consumers that provide health information based on their community/location
Technology that harnesses governmental or open source data to create insights for healthcare providers to evaluate SDoH data and improve population health
In this multi-phase challenge, innovators are asked to submit tech-enabled solutions that account for SDoH. Subject matter experts will evaluate the entries and select the top five teams who will move onto Phase II. The five semi-finalists will be awarded $5,000 each to further develop their application or tool. Then, three finalists will be chosen at the end of Phase II to compete at a live pitch event! They will demo their technology in front of a captivated audience of investors, provider organizations, and members of the media at a prominent health conference. Judges will select the first, second, and third place winners live. Winners will be awarded $40,000 for first place, $25,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place.
The challenge is open to innovators and companies at any stage of development. If you are interested in applying, the competition is now accepting Phase I applications and the deadline to submit is June 7th, 2019 11:59 PM EDT.
To learn more about the challenge, please visit the website. To sign up for updates on the challenge, please click here.