SANTA CLARA, CALIF. – The federal Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute picked three apps for $150,000 in award funding to help patients and researchers connect and collaborate.
The Institute’s Dr. Karen Odom Walker moderated a Hospital Innovation Roundtable session at the Health 2.0 fall conference. In a video interview at the meeting, she described the work of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), which was part of the Affordable Care Act and is based in Washington, D.C.
So far, PCORI has awarded more than $500 million to 300 projects for patient-centered research, and it plans to distribute another $3.5 billion by 2019, she said.
The winners of PCORI’s 2014 Matchmaking App Challenge, announced at the conference, developed ready-to-use Web-based or smartphone apps to link patients, caregivers, clinicians, and researchers in various ways.
First-place winner PatientPowered.us of San Francisco received $100,000 for its mobile network connecting patients with researchers and healthcare professionals to share ideas for solving their medical conditions, such as Crohn’s disease, sleep apnea, migraines, or others, and to connect patients with clinical trials.
Second-place winner WellSpringboard, from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, received $35,000 for its software platform to enable crowdfunding of patient-focused research. CareHubs of Beaverton, Ore. received $15,000 in third-place prize money for a platform for patient engagement in health systems.
Dr. Walker’s spouse works for MedImmune. She reported having no other financial disclosures.
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