[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 70 (Wednesday, April 11, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 21776-21777]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-8758]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES


Announcement of Requirements and Registration for ``Reporting 
Patient Safety Events Challenge''

AGENCY: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information 
Technology, HHS.
    Award Approving Official: Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator 
for Health Information Technology.

ACTION: Notice.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs) listed by the Agency for 
Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) create a safe environment for 
health care providers to collect, aggregate, and analyze data without 
fear of legal discovery. Hospitals struggle to increase internal 
incident reporting, especially by busy physicians and nurses, and to 
create effective systems for the quality and risk management staff to 
do root cause analyses and follow-up. The ``Reporting Patient Safety 
Events Challenge'' asks multi-disciplinary teams to develop an 
application that facilitates the reporting of patient safety events, 
whether implemented in hospital or ambulatory settings. The solution 
needs to make it easier for any individual to file a report 
electronically, using Common Formats but allowing for additional 
elements and narratives. It must allow the hospital quality and risk 
management staff to add information from follow-up investigation, 
submit reports as appropriate to PSOs, the state, or the FDA (which may 
differ, and need to be tracked separately), and track follow-up 
activities.
    The statutory authority for this challenge competition is Section 
105 of the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 (Pub. L. 111-
358).

DATES: Effective on April 11, 2012. Challenge submission period ends 
July 23, 2012, 11:59 p.m. et.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Adam Wong, 202-720-2866; Wil Yu, 202-
690-5920.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Subject of Challenge Competition

    The ``Reporting Patient Safety Events Challenge'' asks multi-
disciplinary teams to develop an application that facilitates the 
reporting of patient safety events, whether implemented in hospital or 
ambulatory settings. This application would:
    <bullet> Increase the ease of reporting patient safety events to 
the provider or parent organization;
    <bullet> Enable providers to import relevant EMR, PHR, and other 
electronic information, including screen shots, to the patient safety 
report and, in turn, submit an AHRQ Common Formats-compliant report to 
one or more PSOs;
    <bullet> Capture useful demographic and other relevant information 
from each patient including age, gender, race, and relevant diagnoses;
    <bullet> Capture information about the type of organization 
submitting the report using AHRQ's PSO Information format;
    <bullet> Reduce burden of reporting by enabling the provider or 
parent organization to have the option of submitting information in the 
patient safety report to non-PSO public health or health oversight 
organizations, including state or federal programs or accrediting or 
certifying bodies.
    <bullet> Be platform-agnostic; and
    <bullet> Leverage and extend NwHIN standards and services 
including, but not limited to, transport (Direct, web services), 
content (Transitions of Care, CCD/CCR), and standardized vocabularies.

Eligibility Rules for Participating in the Competition

    To be eligible to win a prize under this challenge, an individual 
or entity--
    (1) Shall have registered to participate in the competition under 
the rules

[[Page 21777]]

promulgated by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health 
Information Technology.
    (2) Shall have complied with all the requirements under this 
section.
    (3) In the case of a private entity, shall be incorporated in and 
maintain a primary place of business in the United States, and in the 
case of an individual, whether participating singly or in a group, 
shall be a citizen or permanent resident of the United States.
    (4) May not be a Federal entity or Federal employee acting within 
the scope of their employment.
    (5) Shall not be an HHS employee working on their applications or 
submissions during assigned duty hours.
    (6) Shall not be an employee of Office of the National Coordinator 
for Health IT.
    (7) Federal grantees may not use Federal funds to develop COMPETES 
Act challenge applications unless consistent with the purpose of their 
grant award.
    (8) Federal contractors may not use Federal funds from a contract 
to develop COMPETES Act challenge applications or to fund efforts in 
support of a COMPETES Act challenge submission.
    An individual or entity shall not be deemed ineligible because the 
individual or entity used Federal facilities or consulted with Federal 
employees during a competition if the facilities and employees are made 
available to all individuals and entities participating in the 
competition on an equitable basis.
    Entrants must agree to assume any and all risks and waive claims 
against the Federal Government and its related entities, except in the 
case of willful misconduct, for any injury, death, damage, or loss of 
property, revenue, or profits, whether direct, indirect, or 
consequential, arising from my participation in this prize contest, 
whether the injury, death, damage, or loss arises through negligence or 
otherwise.
    Entrants must also agree to indemnify the Federal Government 
against third party claims for damages arising from or related to 
competition activities.

Registration Process for Participants

    To register for this challenge participants should:
    [ssquf] Access the www.challenge.gov Web site and search for the 
``Reporting Patient Safety Events Challenge''.
    [ssquf] Access the ONC Investing in Innovation (i2) Challenge Web 
site at:
    [cir] http://www.health2challenge.org/onc-i2-challenges/.
    [cir] A registration link for the challenge can be found on the 
landing page under the challenge description.

Amount of the Prize

    [ssquf] First Prize: $50,000.
    [ssquf] Second Prize: $15,000.
    [ssquf] Third Prize: $5,000.
    Awards may be subject to Federal income taxes and HHS will comply 
with IRS withholding and reporting requirements, where applicable.

Payment of the Prize

    Prize will be paid by contractor.

Basis Upon Which Winner Will Be Selected

    The ONC review panel will make selections based upon the following 
criteria:
    1. Effectiveness of the system in facilitating patient safety event 
reporting including its compliance with AHRQ's Common Formats.
    2. Usability and design from the standpoint of all stakeholders.
    3. Ability to integrate with electronic health records and other 
HIT data sources.
    4. Creativity and innovation.
    5. Leverage NwHIN standards including transport, content, and 
vocabularies.

Additional Information

    Ownership of intellectual property is determined by the following:
    [ssquf] Each entrant retains title and full ownership in and to 
their submission. Entrants expressly reserve all intellectual property 
rights not expressly granted under the challenge agreement.
    [ssquf] By participating in the challenge, each entrant hereby 
irrevocably grants to Sponsor and Administrator a limited, non-
exclusive, royalty free, worldwide, license and right to reproduce, 
publically perform, publically display, and use the Submission to the 
extent necessary to administer the challenge, and to publically perform 
and publically display the Submission, including, without limitation, 
for advertising and promotional purposes relating to the challenge.

    Authority:  15 U.S.C. 3719.

    Dated: April 5, 2012.
Farzad Mostashari,
National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
[FR Doc. 2012-8758 Filed 4-10-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4150-45-P