Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced
six winners in the HHSinnovates program today in a ceremony at
HHS headquarters, saying all the entries "show a vibrant culture of
innovation" within the department.
"The HHSinnovates program celebrates inventive new ideas to help
carry out the mission of the department," Secretary Sebelius said. "We
have tapped into a culture of collaboration, creativity and innovation
that encourages out of the box thinking to improve our service to
Americans."
Secretary Sebelius launched the program in 2010 to reward innovative
projects and spur accelerated innovation throughout one of the largest
federal departments. Six top winners are selected and recognized twice
each year. This is the fourth round of winners that HHS has announced
since launching in 2010. The program allows all HHS employees to vote
for the best entries via a secure online portal. In the fourth round of
the program, about 13,000 votes were cast by HHS employees, the highest
number of employee votes of any round to date.
HHS Deputy Secretary Bill Corr emphasized the importance of
collaboration for successful innovation. "Innovation depends on building
from idea to idea, and we want all HHS employees to be able to benefit
from the innovative work being done throughout the department," he said.
The fourth round of HHSinnovates included several exciting new
features, including the opportunity for entrants to obtain peer coaching
from previous winners, acting as mentors, as well as access to a
database of past innovation nominations that have been submitted to the
contest.
The winners included three "Secretary's Picks" and three honorable
mentions.
The Secretary's three personal picks from among the six winning
innovations, included:
Electronic Patient Tracking in Disasters - To help hospitals
manage high volumes of incoming patients in disaster situations, the
National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) worked collaboratively with leading hospitals in Bethesda,
Maryland to develop a Patient Tracking and Locating System that can be
made available to hospitals nationwide. Through its novel use of
technology, this system empowers hospital emergency management staff
with real-time information about incoming patient counts, severity
status, and location, assuring key decision makers have the information
necessary to make timely decisions critical to patient care. It is an
exportable model that can be easily deployed and tailored to work in any
hospital setting. Key Contributors: Ivor D'Souza, Wei Ma,
Cindy Notobartolo, Laura Lee, Chandra Kola, David Zhang, and Dwight
Clarke
Connecting Kids with Dental Care - Drawing on the web's popular
"store locator" formats, the Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
(CMS) formed a partnership with over 150 state agencies and managed care
organizations to create an easy-to-use online search tool for finding
dental providers who serve children from low-income families. The Insure
Kids Now Dental Provider Locator is designed to enable mostly-automatic
updating from existing data sources, greatly reducing the costs of
upkeep while ensuring current information. Key Contributors: Terri
Lynn Cohen, Nancy Goetschius, James Resnick, Sanjoy Chakraborty, Keith
Adams, and Barbara Gandy
Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse - The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC) stepped far outside the normal government
communications box with a social media campaign that used humor and
popular culture to convey basic messages about disaster preparedness.
Using the CDC blog, Public Health Matters, a small team of
employees crafted a witty but educational blog post about zombie
preparedness, while regularly referring to real emergencies like
hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes. Communicators stated that if people
were prepared for a zombie apocalypse they were prepared for any
emergency. Readers were told how to make an emergency plan and kit as
well as how to stay informed. When the campaign went viral, its messages
reached millions of viewers, and personal knowledge about preparing for
disasters was enormously increased - for an initial investment of only
$87. Key Contributors: Dave Daigle, Margaret Silver, Ali Khan,
and Catherine Jamal
The other three innovations receiving recognition at the ceremony
included:
Million Hearts™ Initiative - is a national initiative to prevent
one million heart attacks and strokes in America over five years. As a
result of the initiative, multiple agencies at HHS joined together to
create a uniform set of measures to monitor clinical performance and
implement interventions based on four key evidence-based prevention
strategies (appropriate use of aspirin, blood pressure control,
cholesterol management, and smoking cessation) and have aligned
incentives for clinicians and health systems to achieve high
performance. Through the use of meaningful incentives, HHS has
effectively engaged public and privates partners to adopt the
initiative's approach and interventions and to assist in raising
awareness of cardiovascular disease by utilizing new media technologies.
In its first six months, this novel approach has resulted in more than
35 public and private stakeholder organizations working together to
deliver aligned and focused prevention strategies. Key Contributors:
Michael Schooley, Peter Briss, James Galloway, Judy Hannan, Joseph
McCannon, Farzad Mostashari, and Janet Wright
Leveraging the Public to Catch Fugitives - As part of a broad
upgrade of its communications activities, the HHS Office of Inspector
General (OIG) created the first federal website focused solely on
accused criminals wanted for health care fraud. The OIG's Most Wanted
Healthcare Fugitives website leverages the power of the public and
social media in catching and punishing criminals. OIG special agents,
even with the help of other federal law enforcement partners, cannot be
on every U.S. street corner, so tips are essential. In the initiative's
first year, 10 fugitives were captured and held responsible for stealing
millions of dollars. An international fugitive even turned himself in
after discovering himself on the Most Wanted list. Key Contributors:
Roberta Baskin, Erin Fuchs, and Jessica Long
Bridging the CHASM of Health Disparities - Through an innovative
outreach program, the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps
greatly leveraged its own resources and those of other federal, state
and local agencies to improve public health services to Americans. In
its Community Health and Service Missions (CHASM) program, the Corps
draws on its unique position under the leadership of the Surgeon General
to assemble broad federal and state resources and target them in a
highly cost-effective way to help local agencies improve their public
health assessment, analysis, and interventions. Key Contributors:
CAPT Kimberly Elenberg, CAPT Carol Lincoln, MaryAnn Veitch, CAPT Calvin
Edwards, CAPT Alan Parham, CDR Christopher McGee, and CDR David
Morrissette
Air pollution increases emergency department visits