RWJF Games to Generate Data Challenge
This is the second challenge in a series of innovation challenges sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) Initiative. In the first challenge, titled “Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Aligning Forces Challenge”, RWJF asked developers to create applications that help patients access better health care using publicly available inpatient and outpatient measures of .jpg)
health care quality from the Aligning Forces program.
Following up on the great success of the first Challenge, RWJF is sponsoring another challenge that uses gaming and gamification concepts to generate health data that can be incorporated into the Aligning Forces data set. Gamification has been an increasingly hot topic in the health space, but seldom have games been used for the express purpose of creating data to improve the health and the quality of care in a community (big or small).
Description
The second challenge is a two-stage competition with a front-end ideation component and a back-end application development component. Participants are asked to develop game applications that target the Aligning Forces geographies, and drive the creation of useful health care quality data. Solutions submitted to the competition should be able to scale up or down to other geographies, so that they could be included in other geographies.
The target audience for game developers includes the developer community galvanized by the Games for Health Project. Developers should strive to create apps aimed at increasing health outcomes and healthcare quality, as well as reducing overall spending on community health and improving overall community health. The target audience for game "players" is citizens (including patient populations and health professionals) seeking to improve, enhance and optimize community health with a citizen-science like approach. In "playing", participants will in fact be competing to improve personal health – but the overarching goal is to maximize community health.
The challenge will be conducted in two phases: an Ideation Phase and a Development Phase. Prizes will be awarded at the end of both phases, with the larger prizes reserved for the conclusion of the second phase.
In addition to creating health data, developers are required to use the Aligning Forces performance data and are encouraged to use a number of other data sources, including, but by no means limited to, County Health Ranking data, etc. Other potential data sources include healthdata.gov and the health indicators warehouse. Critical to generating data is explaining how the data they seek to create is novel and has a specific means to be deployed toward the goals of improving community health and healthcare quality.
In the Ideation Phase, teams are asked to develop concepts describing the applications they would build for the challenge. Teams must submit a written document, either in Microsoft Word of Powerpoint format, that includes a software description, a data generation description, and a community deployment approach.
In the Application Development Phase, the top five teams that participated in the Ideation Phase are asked to create working game applications that build on what was proposed in the Ideation Phase. The deliverable for this phase is an 8-slide summary deck and a 5-minute video demonstrating the application in action.
Data Sources and Suggestions:
For Aligning Forces performance data: email Jenn Stone at jstone@health2con.com.
For County Health Ranking and Roadmaps data: Download data. More information. Note:
- County health ranks are calculated within, not across, states.
- The spreadsheets contain background information in addition to the ranks and underlying data, including the data years (which vary by measure).
- Some measures may not be available for all counties, particularly for less populated counties.
- Some measures are not comparable across state lines: this table summarizes data comparability across states.
- For each of the measures included in the rankings, national benchmarks have been calculated. These are not national averages – they are the points at which only 10% of counties in the nation do better, i.e. the 90th percentile or 10th percentile, depending on whether the measure is framed positively (e.g., high school graduation) or negatively (e.g., adult smoking).
- Data users can send questions to info@countyhealthrankings.org.
Evaluation Criteria
The Challenge requires that the game generate data that inform efforts to improve health and health care. Evaluation criteria for judging will include:
- Creativity and innovation
- Game and/or gamification design characteristics that clearly drive engagement and experience
- Design, usability and intuitiveness of application
- Effective integration of Aligning Forces and County Health Rankings data, etc
- Potential for data generated to improve health and health care (weighted most heavily)
- Potential and realistic plans for adoption in the community that minimally generates a quality data set, and at a maximum engages as many people in doing it
- Extra credit: apps that help community leaders improve Aligning Forces community healthcare
Submission Criteria
The 'Registration Form' is Step 1 of 2 for entry into this challenge. By registering, you indicate your interest in participating in the Challenge and will automatically receive a 'Final Submission Form' upon registration. You must complete this 'Final Submission Form', including the required elements for the final submission, prior to the Challenge deadline. Your completed submission will be considered for judging only once this second form is received.
Submission Criteria for Phase 1: Ideation Phase
In this first phase, teams are asked to develop concepts describing the applications they would build for the challenge. The submission for this phase will be a written document, in PDF format, of no more than 8 pages describing the submission. The document should include a software description, a data generation description, and a community deployment approach.
Submission Criteria for Phase 2: Development PhaseIn the second phase, teams are asked to develop working game applications that build on what was proposed in the Ideation Phase. Teams are required to submit an 8-slide summary deck and a 5-minute video demonstrating the application in action.
Timeline
- Phase 1 Launch: December 5, 2012
- Phase 1 Submission Deadline: February 22, 2013
- Phase 1 Winners Announced: March 8, 2013
- Phase 2 Launch: March 11, 2013
- Phase 2 Submission Deadline: July 29, 2013
- Phase 2 Winners Announced: September 2, 2013
- Phase 2 Winners Presentation: Fall Health 2.0 Conference 2013
Get more information here.