Health 2.0 and ONC Announce Reporting Patient Safety Events Challenge

 Health 2.0 and the  Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) recently launched the Reporting Patient Safety Events Challenge, designed to spur development of platform-agnostic HIT tools to facilitate the reporting of medical errors in hospital and outpatient settings. The Reporting Patient Safety Events Challenge is part of the ONC Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative, which holds competitions featuring cash and other prizes to accelerate development and adoption of technology solutions that enhance quality and outcomes. The program is run through the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge.  

"We are very confident this completion will drive patient safety to a higher level by addressing gaps in the voluntary adverse event reporting process," Indu Subaiya, cochairman and CEO of Health 2.0. "Because medical errors occur in a complex environment and are caused by multiple factors, providers and healthcare regulators must capture a wider range of data beyond the  common definitions and reporting formats (Common Formats) developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). The innovative, winning tools that emerge from this challenge will improve the flow of actionable information, help providers identify and address issues that put patients at risk, and make it easier for hospitals and physician practices to voluntarily report incidents, near misses and unsafe conditions to patient safety organizations (PSOs), and public health and health oversight agencies."  In order to increase the amount, frequency, and granularity of reported data, challenge submissions must do the following:

• increase the ease of reporting patient safety events to the provider or parent organization;

• enable providers to import relevant EMR, PHR, and other electronic information, including screen shots, to the patient safety report and, in turn, submit an AHRQ Common Formats-compliant report to one or more PSOs;

• capture useful demographic and other relevant information from each patient including age, gender, race, and relevant diagnoses;

• capture information about the type of organization submitting the report using AHRQ's PSO Information format; and

• reduce burden of reporting by enabling the provider or parent organization to have the option of submitting information in the patient safety report to non-PSO public health or health oversight organizations, including state or federal programs or accrediting or certifying bodies.
  

Applicants are required to submit their entries by August 31, 2012, and will be judged on the effectiveness of their system in facilitating patient safety event reporting including compliance with AHRQ's common formats; usability and design; ability to integrate with EHRs and other HIT data sources; and application of NwHIN standards. The first place winner will receive $50,000. The second place prize will be $15,000, and third prize will be $5,000. To learn more about the challenge, visit the Reporting Patient Safety Events Challenge website.

Source: Health 2.0 and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology