The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is excited to announce the launch of a new Investing in Innovation (i2) Initiative developer contest! The i2 program promotes the use of technology to find solutions that drive better outcomes, engage users in their health, and improve health care quality. The “Ocular Imaging Challenge” tasks developers with creating an application that improves interoperability among office-based ophthalmic imaging devices, measurement devices, and electronic health records (EHRs).

Documentation of the typical ophthalmology examination in an EHR continues to be difficult, creating barriers to full acceptance and use of EHRs within the medical community. Ophthalmologists use an array of measurement and imaging devices during exams that produce data and images in numerous forms. However, these are often stored in databases and file formats that have limited connectivity with EHR systems and ophthalmology-specific picture archiving and communication systems.

About the Ocular Imaging Developer Contest
The “Ocular Imaging Challenge” is a multidisciplinary call to innovators to create an application that can solve this problem. In addition, specialties such as cardiology, physiatry (physical medicine and rehabilitation), and otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose, and throat) encounter the imaging issue, so a successful solution can be expected to have an impact beyond ophthalmology. The application should be capable of converting the output of legacy devices from proprietary formats into vendor-neutral standard formats, archiving data from multiple devices, displaying and allowing the manipulation of images and data for clinicians, and integrating with existing EHRs. This tool would make it easier for ophthalmologists to save eye images and other data in a patient’s EHR, lowering that barrier to adoption and enhancing the capability of EHRs to store all of a patient’s medical data.

Participants’ submissions will be evaluated on several criteria, including the breadth of input devices and formats, the usability and interface for image viewing, and integration with existing office systems.  A subject-matter expert panel will review the submissions.

Enter the Ocular Imaging Developer Contest
Submissions for the new i2 “Ocular Imaging Challenge” are due on November 9, 2012. The first place team will win $100,000, with awards of $35,000 and $15,000 going to the second place and third place teams, respectively. For more details, visit http://www.health2con.com/devchallenge/ocular-imaging-challenge/ .

We Want to Hear From You

Have thoughts on this blog post? Do you plan to enter this developer contest? Share your thoughts in the comment section below. We look forward to hearing from you!

To learn more about health information technology, visit HealthIT.gov.