The people behind mega million dollar awards for innovative solutions to space travel, DNA research and fuel efficient cars are turning their sights on community health.
…they will be offering a $10 million dollar prize to the person or group who is able to transform the health of a small U.S. community.
The non-profit group will be accepting written proposals for the Healthcare X Prize, of which they will select five finalists to conduct a three-year trial run in real communities to determine whose plan is the most successful.
Contestants will be scored according to a “community health index” which evaluates effectiveness of the programs with indicators like improved physical fitness of individuals in the community, as well a reduced emergency room visits and lowered health care expenditures. [More at RedOrbit]
Links to the details of the design of the prize are here. They are also accepting public comments about the design of the project before making it final. Looks like something groups with social marketing expertise should investigate. They are proposing that demonstration communities or employer-based groups and a comparison community or group have populations of about 10,000 each (which sounds awfully small to me) and where Wellpoint (one of the sponsors of the prize) has markets. You will have 3 years to conduct the work and evaluate the results. There is some fuzziness in how much teams can spend on their project, but that work is not going to be funded by the competition. Indeed, the costs of the program will be one of the features that are looked at in making an award of the prize.
They should realy focus on AIDS prevention and treatment and research on vaccine and chemotherapy against HIV virus
HIV symptoms Prevention Treatment
Posted by: Account Deleted | 24 May 2009 at 12:29 AM