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Announcing the 47 Finalists for Spring 2016 HHS Ignite Accelerator!

Summary: 
Join me in congratulating these project teams!

From October 1 through November 6, we put a call out to employees across the Department of Health and Human Services to send us your project ideas for the next Round of the HHS Ignite Accelerator. And... WOW. We received 82 proposals. Now, after a careful review process, join me in congratulating these project teams!

  • Technology Transfer Ambassadors Program: Empowering Postdoctoral Innovation, NIH
  • Engaging media: Communication to support CDC's HIV work in Africa, CDC
  • HHS-Leve Real Time Accountable Acquisition Tracking System, FDA
  • Virtual Clinical Trial for Regulation of X-ray Imaging Devices, FDA
  • ROAR (Rapid Opioid Alert Response), SAMHSA
  • Unified Funding Opportunity Announcement (UFOA), ACF
  • Introducing "Bridge": Gateway to Streamlined Communication, FDA
  • ASK ME app (Allergies & Safe Kids Mobile Educator), NIH
  • Rapid Enforcement Action Quality Transformation (REAQT), FDA
  • PIMC Improving Patient Clinic Access, IHS
  • Streamlined IT Clearance Program, NIH
  • Sourcing the Crowd to Drive Patient Centered Change in Healthcare, AHRQ
  • CMS FOIA and Correspondence Online Request Entry System, CMS
  • Making Data Usable as Well as Useful, ACF
  • Building collaborations to understand the long-term public health burden of TBI, CDC
  • Big Data Tools to Find Changes in Injury Patterns in Health Records, FDA
  • Impact of National Practitioner Data Bank Reports, HRSA
  • Creating a National Provider Information Database, CMS
  • Shared Private Cloud Storage: A Solution to the Data Storage Problem, NIH
  • Deployable data integration solutions for Global Health Security, CDC
  • Increasing Collaboration to Improve Outcomes for Foster Care Children, CDC
  • Clinical Decision Support Tool to Prevent Group B Streptococal Infections, CDC
  • Understanding TANF through Data Visualization, ACF
  • HHE Reports: A Better Product and Process, CDC
  • Cloud Economics: Building A Sustainable Cloud Cost Model for the NIH, NIH
  • LiveQ Pharmacy Work Queue, IHS
  • Engaging & Empowering Individuals: Improving HHS Consumer-Facing Resources, OS (includes StaffDivs)
  • NIH Collaboration Connector (NC2), NIH
  • An Interactive Map for Teen Pregnancy Prevention Projects across the U.S., OS (includes StaffDivs)
  • From Coverage to Care: Health Literacy for all CMS consumers, CMS
  • Visualizing the Nation's Health: Engage users to interact with NCHS Data, CDC
  • Improving Laboratory Efficiency through Technological Simplicity, CDC
  • Building Flexibility into the Training Experience for HHS, HRSA
  • RAVEN - A Cloud-Based System to Maximize Human Research Subject Protection, NIH
  • Alternative Medical Malpractice Systems, HRSA
  • Integrating Agile Management Approaches into a Federal Research Environment, NIH
  • Finding Focus for ATSDR, CDC
  • Initiative for Translational Discoveries (iTrans), NIH
  • Scientific merit project, NIH
  • NIOSH Nexus: A collaboration facilitator, CDC
  • Medical Device Evaluation Information Network, FDA
  • IPIFS, CMS
  • A Visual Workout to Develop a Highly Competent Regional Office Workforce, ACF
  • ACF Emergency Preparedness GIS Data Tool, ACF
  • Partnership Alignment Information Response System, ACF
  • Training Data Locker, NIH
  • ASA Project Management Skills Bank, OS (includes StaffDivs)

A Few Notes

It wasn't easy narrowing down from the 82 to this batch of Finalists. The process for identifying these finalists involved 25 Reviewers, 5 Reviewer panels, z-scores, OpDiv diversity, and a few big bets. For more on the selection methodology, read our post on How We Chose the Spring 2016 Finalists. We want to encourage all who applied to continue scrapping, to continue diving deep to understand the problem better than anyone else, to be at the center of multiple perspectives on how to address that problem, and to gain insights and empathy through mindful conversations with all involved. It's worth noting that the 82 submitted project ideas does not count the ones that submitted directly to HRSA Idea Spring. (By the way, in case you missed it: HRSA is running their own internal accelerator pilot.) Add the project ideas from these sister programs together, and the number is over 100.

So What Happens Next?

Over the next 2 months, individuals and teams identified as finalists receive introductory design and entrepreneurship training, connections to the innovator network (such as to Ignite Alumni), and time to refine their project idea. Then, they come back in early February to give their big pitch! Based upon those pitches, we hope to identify 20 teams who would enter the Spring 2016 HHS Ignite Accelerator. For a more detailed writeup of this stage of the process, check out our webpage on Being a Finalist. As teams go through this Finalist phase, their project ideas - and even the teams themselves! - are encouraged to change in light of new insights and information discovered. We imagine that a number of the above project teams will unearth some interesting findings that will change the direction of their proposal entirely. The mission of this Department and our family of Agencies touches the lives of American. One thing is for sure: Innovation is alive and well at HHS. We look forward to seeing what these teams learn in the next two months!

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