Amidst an epoch of rising medical costs and heightened scrutiny towards excess healthcare spending, the U.S. government has responded by encouraging healthcare providers to tighten those proverbial belts while also improving upon the quality of patient care. One encouragement came in the form of the Health Care Innovation Awards, grants made possible by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and amounting to a total of $1.9 billion, awarded to 107 projects that meet these goals. Organizations nationwide have demonstrated that with a little gold carrot dangling ahead, a spark of human ingenuity and sophisticated health IT infrastructure, success proves altogether attainable.

Here Healthcare IT News profiles five award-winners and their projects to improve care in communities across the country, while yielding savings that are expected to far exceed the government investment in the pilots.

Tele-ICUs put rural Georgia on the map

Zip Code key to better care on Chicago's South Side

Project aims to engage high-risk patients in city of brotherly love

Bull’s eye: Diabetes

Health initiative gives chronic care a facelift