AMA, Google pick Interoperability and Innovation Challenge finalists

The American Medical Association and Google have announced eight finalists for its Health Care Interoperability and Innovation Challenge, which seeks solutions that use patient-generated data in meaningful ways to improve clinical outcomes, streamline physician workflows and reduce costs.

The finalists, selected based on crowd-sourced voting and judge scoring, will pitch their ideas on Thursday in front of a live audience and panel of judges at Google’s office in Cambridge, Mass.

All qualified entries will receive a prize of $3,000 in Google Cloud credits. Ultimately, three winners will be awarded a total of $50,000 in Google Cloud credits—$25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second place, and $10,000 for third place—during the live event.

“Solutions that focus on data sharing are of particular interest,” according to the AMA-led challenge, which is sponsored by Google. “Entrants are asked to present solutions that demonstrate how data related to remote patient monitoring of conditions is captured on a mobile device, and how it is transferred to and from a clinicians’ practice for incorporation into a physician’s practice workflow.”

The eight finalists competing in the challenge include:

• Carium from Petaluma, Calif.—a platform that is designed to help individuals and healthcare providers manage care in collaborative and continual fashion, resulting in better patient outcomes, reduced healthcare costs and improved patient-provider relationships.

• Continua from Overland Park, Kan.—Medical-grade data exchange for remote monitoring of health, medical and fitness devices and services.

• FUTUREASSURE from Omaha, Neb.—A novel device that automates collection of clinical and research frailty metrics in preoperative surgical patients utilizing standard clinical workflow.

• HealthSteps from Gainesville, Fla.—an app, available on both iPhone and Android, that leverages the smartphone’s alerts and notifications to keep the patient on track with their care plan requirements.

• Hypertension Predictive Patient Engagement (HYPPE) from Philadelphia—a predictive and data-driven platform for web/mobile to engage hypertension patients to ensure care by enhancing behaviors.

• I-deal Health from Tel Aviv, Israel—an app that allows patients to track their personalized risk stratification for various conditions side by side and compare the likely impact of multiple potential interventions.

• ML-Cardio from Philadelphia—a cardiac care ambulatory blood pressure and weight monitoring program using Bluetooth devices that can transfer data directly to a hospital’s EMR via cell phone.

• Personal PHI System from Rockwall, Texas—PaCI-HIE platform seamlessly accesses and downloads patient health data from multiple sources through the patient’s smartphone.

Last year, AMA launched a new digital platform—called the Integrated Health Model Initiative (IHMI)—designed to improve, organize and share health information among healthcare stakeholders through a common data model.

Also See: AMA launches platform for organizing, exchanging health information

According to AMA, the Health Care Interoperability and Innovation Challenge “seeks to inform the mobile device and app developer community, as well as the start-up ecosystem, about IHMI.”

The live finals event for the challenge can be viewed here on Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. CDT.