More Than 340 Innovators Set Sights On Creating Patient Identification System

A global crowd-sourcing competition aimed at finding a solution for accurate patient identification has drawn interest from more than 345 innovators across 39 countries, the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and HeroX reported today.

Launched last January, the CHIME Healthcare Innovation Trust’s National Patient ID Challenge encourages innovators to develop a way for healthcare providers in the United States to accurately, privately and safely identify patients 100 percent of the time. Among the 345 registered innovators, 113 entered the Concept Blitz round, which closed on April 27. The Concept Blitz round allows innovators to get feedback from an expert panel of judges before moving onto the next round. CHIME on June 1 will name up to three winners from the Concept Blitz round, each receiving a $30,000 prize. Innovators were not required to enter this phase in order to be considered for the ultimate $1 million prize.

The following timeline maps out the rest of the challenge:

• June 1: Final innovation round opens
• July 12: Registration deadline for final innovation round
• November 10: Final submissions due
• February 2017: Grand prize winner announced

“We are thrilled by the early response to the National Patient ID Challenge,” said Marc Probst, CHIME board chair and vice president and chief information officer at Intermountain Healthcare. “CIOs and others in healthcare have long seen the need for a way to accurately identify patients. It is a critical part of ensuring that patients can be matched to their data. It will improve patient safety and help remove millions of dollars in waste from the system. Having so many innovators registered for the competition and eager to bring forward a solution is a sign that we are ready to tackle this challenge once and for all.”

An independent panel of experts agreed to judge the National Patient ID Challenges. They are:

• Andy Gettinger, M.D., chief medical information officer, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
• Lynne Thomas Gordon, CEO, American Health Information Management Association
• U.S. Army Col. Nicole Kerkenbush, deputy program executive officer, Defense Healthcare Management System, Depart of Defense
• Lorraine Possanza, DPM, JD, MBE, director, patient safety, risk and quality , ECRI Institute
• Rulon Stacey, managing director, Navigant Leadership Institute; board member, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Board of Overseers

About CHIME
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) is an executive organization dedicated to serving chief information officers and other senior healthcare IT leaders. With more than 1,800 CIO members and over 150 healthcare IT vendors and professional services firms, CHIME provides a highly interactive, trusted environment enabling senior professional and industry leaders to collaborate; exchange best practices; address professional development needs; and advocate the effective use of information management to improve the health and healthcare in the communities they serve. For more information, visit www.chimecentral.org.