The storms in the Mid-Atlantic area two weeks ago served as a potent reminder that we need to continue to develop policies and solutions to ensure that the American public is prepared for any type of disaster. The power outages associated with the storms again highlighted an unmet need—some individuals with access and functional needs who typically care for themselves or receive care at home using electricity and battery-powered medical devices were forced to evacuate their homes and go to the hospital to power and re-supply their equipment.

ASPR and FEMA have collaborated to take a step toward solving this problem. Together, we applied for and were selected to participate in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Innovation Fellows Program. The Program brings external ideas and expertise to HHS’s own innovation process to rapidly create, develop, engage and accelerate innovation. Both parties benefit. The internal innovators gain expertise on an innovative project; external innovators have the opportunity to serve the American public for 6 – 12 months and gain a unique experience working for the Federal government to solve critical health care issues. For ASPR and FEMA, we will be working with an external innovator to build a “health resilience technology” that will allow individuals who rely on electricity-powered medical equipment to continue to use their devices at home during prolonged power outages. We aren’t exactly sure what this technology will look like, but we are excited to work with the external innovator to begin to work toward a solution. The three other HHS projects that will benefit from the expertise of an external innovator include:

• Designing the infrastructure for Medicaid and CHIP eligibility: Develop an electronic infrastructure that States can integrate to implement the Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) method for determining eligibility for Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility that is required under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
• Accelerating clinical quality measures for the Affordable Care Act: Develop new clinical quality measures that incorporate information available in electronic health records to monitor the impact of the implementation of the HITECH Act (ARRA) and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
• Devising electronic tracking and transport of the nation’s organ transplant system: Revise the existing organ system to improve identification, labeling, packaging, and transport of the nation’s organs and include electronic components for identifying organs and tracking their movement to minimize the potential for misdirection or other delays in organ transportation and reduce the chance of incorrect transplantation.

The initial step that we completed—being selected to participate in the Program—was the easy part; now comes the hard work. But, before we can move forward, we need to spread the word about the Innovation Fellows Program to ensure that knowledgeable and motivated external experts and entrepreneurs who are passionate about solving the Nation’s most critical health care problems apply to be external innovators. Participants will have direct access to a team of other entrepreneurs, innovation experts, industry professionals and venture capitalists, and can participate in mentoring programs with these experts to support the innovation projects.

The HHS External Innovator application is open to individuals outside the Department of Health and Human Services from June 20, 2012 – July 20, 2012. More information can be found on the HHS Open Government webpage. If you have questions, please contact innovationfellows@hhs.gov.