New York eHealth Collaborative Partners with Health 2.0 to Launch Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge

NEW YORK, Jan. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC), in partnership with the leading health technology catalyst, Health 2.0, invites designers and developers to participate in the Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge with $25,000 in prizes. Starting today, designers and developers can submit prototypes for a statewide patient portal for New Yorkers -- a website for patients to access their medical records online. The top portal interface designs will be chosen and voted upon by New Yorkers after the April 11^th deadline.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120816/NE58665LOGO )

Developers will have 11 weeks to work on and then submit a design for the Patient Portal Challenge. To guarantee patient privacy during the design challenge, developers and designers will be given a test patient data set to build their applications. They will not have access to actual health records. Once all of the submissions are received on April 11^th, the New York public will be invited to vote on their favorite designs from April 11-21. The designs with the strongest responses will be invited to present their project at two different demo days—one in New York City in April and another at a location upstate in early May.  A winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

After the Challenge, NYeC will work with a vendor to build the portal and run it on behalf of the state of New York via its health information exchange network.

"This is a chance for developers and designers to advance healthcare for all 20 million New Yorkers. A portal of this size and scope has never before existed," said David Whitlinger, Executive Director of NYeC. "Through our Design Challenge, we hope to inspire applicants to develop truly creative and user-friendly applications. We look forward to seeing all submissions, and eventually building this portal so patients throughout the state have full access to their health records."

The patient portal mock-ups are required to include features that will allow patients to log on with a username and password to see their health records online safely and securely. Once logged in, patients will see a full layout of their health records, and also have access to a list of medical professionals, such as their family doctor, who have accessed their health records. The Patient Portal for New Yorkers will also provide an extensive overview of patient privacy rights, and address any privacy concerns a patient might have about Electronic Medical Records and Health IT in general.

"Health 2.0 is excited to be partnering with NYeC on this innovative challenge to design the first statewide patient portal for New York," said Jean-Luc Neptune, Senior Vice President of Health 2.0. "The winners will not only make a tremendous contribution to the development of a patient portal that reaches nearly 20 million people, but also gain significant exposure and recognition for their achievement through participation in the challenge."

The patient portal also compliments the information available through the Blue Button, a knowledge tool being coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that helps users download their personal health information.  NYeC has proudly taken HHS' "Blue Button Pledge" and supports the use of the Blue Button to empower "individuals to be partners in their health through health IT" in an effort to build on the Blue Button's success in improving care coordination for veterans by giving them easy access to their health data.

"We are excited about the steps that NYeC is taking to launch the patient portal and support their commitment to helping make patients' information available to them," said Lygeia Ricciardi, Director of the Consumer eHealth Office at HHS' Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT. "Providing patients and consumers with access to their own healthcare records is what the Blue Button pledge is all about."

For more information on the Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge, and to submit a prototype by April 11^th, please visit http://www.health2con.com/devchallenge/new-york-state-patient-portal-challenge/

About The New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC): NYeC is a not-for-profit organization, working to improve healthcare for all New Yorkers through health information technology (health IT). Founded in 2006 by healthcare leaders, NYeC receives funding from state and federal grants to serve as the focal point for health IT in the State of New York. NYeC works to develop policies and standards, to assist healthcare providers in making the shift to electronic health records, and to coordinate the creation of a network to connect healthcare providers statewide. For more information about NYeC, visit www.nyehealth.org and @NYeHealth on Twitter.

About Health 2.0: The conference. The media network. The Innovation Community. The Health 2.0 Conference is the leading showcase of cutting-edge technologies in health care, including Online Communities, Search and lightweight Tools for consumers to manage their health and connect to providers online. The Health 2.0 Developer Challenge is a series of prize competitions promoting health technology innovation. Health 2.0 also has its own media channels, Health 2.0 News and Health 2.0 TV; its own market intelligence service, Health 2.0 Advisors; and also sponsors the Health 2.0 Accelerator industry consortium. Health 2.0 was founded by Indu Subaiya & Matthew Holt in 2007 and is now a community of hundreds of organizations and thousands of innovators. For more information, visit www.health2con.com or find us on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE New York eHealth Collaborative