3. Challenge Description
This challenge seeks algorithms (methods, processes and/or tools) for identifying
redundancies, gaps, conflicts, and interactions among care-plan items and other
data.
•Focus on at least one of the following health concerns: mental health, chronic pain, diabetes, or
cardiovascular disease
•The solutions should address the following care plan items: medications, laboratory-test orders.
Goals or parameters for treatment, home-health nursing care plans, inpatient nursing care plans,
physical therapy/exercise regimens, and counseling regimens should also be considered.
•Methods should account for laboratory results and medical conditions. The solutions may also
describe how they would use goals in their methods.
4. Goal: A single, coherent patient-centered
treatment plan
VA aims to create capability in its EHR
for a single plan of care. This plan of
care will relate conditions,
interventions, measurable
observations, and goals.
VA will also receive data form DoD
and community care providers.
EHR needs to help user with clinical
reconciliation.
5. Goal: A single, coherent patient-centered
treatment plan
Gaps:
◦ Active condition does not have an assigned intervention
Conflicts
◦ dietary restrictions and recommendations.
◦ recommendations in type of daily activity and exercise.
◦ Medications that may make recommended activity, exercise, or activities of daily living (ADL) difficult
(e.g., diuretics may interfere with exercise or activities outside the home; medications that increase risk
of falls; medications that interfere with sleep)
Not interested in drug-drug interactions that current solutions manage.
6. Submission Requirements
Phase I Phase II
• Written description (up to 3 pages)
• Describe methods, processes and/or
tools to identify redundancies, gaps,
conflicts and interactions among care-
plans, what data is necessary and how
you would incorporate these data
• A slide deck with illustrations of how the
algorithms would be used (no more than
10 slides)
• All items from Phase I
• Link to working application
7. Evaluation Criteria
Potential to resolve care coordination issues and integrate data from
the VA as well as external sources (50%)
How well the methods scale to produce content (algorithms) for
various use cases (25%)
Potential and realistic plans for adoption (15%)
Innovative and elegant (10%)
8. Timeline
Challenge Launch: April 28, 2015
Phase I Submission Deadline: July 13, 2015
Finalists Announced: Early August
Phase II Launches: August 10, 2015
Phase II Submission Deadline: November 2, 2015
Winners Announced Early December
