HHS seeks applicants for HHSentrepreneurs Program

Second annual talent search to benefit high impact projects

Health and Human Services (HHS) Deputy Secretary Bill Corr announced today that the Department is seeking innovators and entrepreneurs to apply for the HHSentrepreneurs Program. Launched last year, HHSentrepreneurs connects private sector innovators and entrepreneurs with teams of federal employees working on projects that address some of the biggest challenges in health, health care and human services.

The first individuals hired last October through HHSentrepreneurs are working on critical projects including the Affordable Care Act, health resilience technology, and the nation’s organ transplant system.

“By bringing the best in the public and private sectors together, HHSentrepreneurs is creating an environment in HHS that fosters innovative solutions to new and old challenges,” Deputy Secretary Corr said.

HHSentrepreneurs is recruiting the brightest experts and entrepreneurs in the nation who have demonstrated a significant record of achievement in their fields. In last year’s competition for four projects, six individuals were selected from a field of more than 100 candidates. These highly talented professionals from business, industry, and academia bring successful innovations, models, and business practices to work on specific, high-priority projects over a period of six to 12 months.

This year, HHSentrepeneurs intends to place six to eight external entrepreneurs into the following projects starting in the fall of 2013:

· Application of Design Thinking to Grants: The Administration for Children and Families seeks to improve grantee program implementation to better meet the needs of the low income populations that the agency serves through the creation of a low cost, replicable methodology to better assess grantee client problems.

· Cloud-Based GIS Maps Displaying Aggregate Data on Medical Malpractice: The Health Resources Services Administration seeks to build a public-facing Geographic Information Systems map application that displays medical malpractice data to allow researchers and the general public to better view, analyze, and understand this information to support the development of novel tools and strategies to improve patient safety and protection.

· Health Information Exchange Accelerators: The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology seeks to accelerate health information exchange (HIE) by developing new tools that can reduce HIE implementation effort and cost for a wide range of health care entities including those that are not eligible for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Electronic Health Records Incentive Program.

· Modernizing the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System: CMS seeks to improve the existing National Plan and Provider Enumeration System to improve usability, scalability and data quality.

· Predictive Analytics: Merging Innovation and Business Operations: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources seeks to leverage the field of predictive analytics to generate predictive risk models to proactively manage grants across HHS Operating and Staff Divisions.

· Publication Planning and Clearance Process Improvement Project: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs seeks to re-engineer its publications planning and clearance process to better meet the needs of a communications landscape dominated by digital and social media.

Applications are being accepted until Aug. 16, 2013. For more information and to apply, visit http://www.hhs.gov/open/initiatives/entrepreneurs/index.html.

The HHS is the United States government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.