On Tuesday, HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, Howard K. Koh, MD, named San Carlos-Calif.-based LyfeChannel winner of the competition that drew submissions from developers, health professionals and consumers nationwide. LyfeChannel walked away with the $50,000 grand prize for its myfamily app that allows each family member to manage their health all through a single platform.

 

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The app emphasizes preventive care benefits and services covered by the Affordable Care Act. HHS officials say the aim is empowering individuals to be more engaged in improving and maintaining their family’s health. Users can find customized prevention information and tips for each member of their family, create personal health alerts and keep track of medical check-ups and vaccinations. HHS officials point to specific research finding that patients who are more engaged in their own healthcare have better health outcomes, and electronic tools can help them be better health consumers.

 

"This app helps put the power of prevention at the fingertips of Americans," said Koh, in a press statement. "Families can now use healthfinder.gov preventive care information to make informed, personalized health care decisions right from their smart phone."

 

The healthfinder.gov Mobile App Challenge was sponsored by the HHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion and managed in coordination with healthcare technology company Health 2.0 and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It challenged developers and health professionals to work together to co-design a mobile application that makes healthfinder.gov content customizable and easily accessible for prevention care planning. Healthfinder.gov's data is drawn from some 1,400 government and non-profit organizations and includes data on clinical preventive services covered under the ACA.  

 

During the first phase of the challenge, developers worked with end users, via a crowdsourcing platform called Health Tech Hatch, to build a working prototype. More than 160 individuals registered as testers and provided more than 260 comments. Three finalists were selected from 26 submissions to move on to the second and final phase.

 

"For the first time during a challenge competition we went to end users during the development of the applications," said Bryan Sivak, HHS' chief technology officer, in a press statement. "The use of crowdsourcing and feedback loops provided teams with critical information to develop a more useful application — not just another app – but a piece of technology that fulfills the needs of its users and improves health."