Contest Encourages Fresh Big Data Ideas

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), Heritage Provider Network (HPN), and The Advisory Board Company recently launched the Care Transformation Prize Series, a national contest to address the most daunting data problems US health care organizations face as they implement new delivery system and payment reforms.

The goal of this big data challenge is to help health care organizations more effectively use data to drive improvements in health care cost and quality. The series was announced at a BPC-hosted event that featured a forward-thinking discussion on the strategies that providers, health plans, and states are using to harness data to help Americans lower their health care costs and improve care.

The Care Transformation Prize Series is the latest competition sponsored by Dr. Richard Merkin, president and CEO of HPN, in an ongoing effort to spur innovations that improve quality and reduce inefficiencies as organizations work to implement new delivery system and payment reforms. This prize series expands upon lessons learned from past HPN data competitions to ensure that we are identifying the questions that will best support transformations in care.

"Today, we call on the entire health care community—particularly those serving on the front lines in providing care—to submit the most difficult data challenges facing their organizations as they implement new models of care," said Merkin.

"Over the next two years, this contest will inspire innovative solutions for health care organizations as they learn how to leverage large data, particularly clinical data sets, for reform efforts."

A Prize Board made up of prominent leaders from many sectors of health care will determine which challenges will be addressed by competing teams of leading data scientists.

Heritage Provider Network and The Advisory Board Company will offer at least three quarterly prizes of $100,000 to the teams that develop the best solutions to the selected challenges. The winning algorithms will then be made available to health care organizations and the public.

Every day, health care providers are being asked to improve care while lowering costs. Yet few organizations have the knowledge, expertise, and resources to create and utilize data-driven models of care. "To be successful, providers need to access and analyze large electronic data sets, which are now becoming more available through investments in health IT," said BPC Health Innovation Initiative Director Janet Marchibroda. "This contest is an innovative way to create ground-breaking solutions to some of the toughest problems facing health care organizations today."

Faced with continuing concerns about rising health care costs and uneven quality, the federal government, states, and private sector are rapidly adopting new models of delivery and payment reforms that promise to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of health care.

"The Advisory Board Company is privileged to be providing the data analytics platform with which our unparalleled network of member organizations is delivering better care, more efficiently," said Richard Schwartz, executive vice president at The Advisory Board Company. "We're excited to tap into the broader community of data and care experts to help accelerate these efforts."

Source: The Advisory Board Company