Apps for Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention

The Office for the National Coordinator recently announced the winners of their “One in a Million Hearts Challenge,” which invited developers to create software applications aimed at promoting heart health.

The Office for the National Coordinator recently announced the winners of their “One in a Million Hearts Challenge,” which invited developers to create software applications aimed at promoting heart health. The contest supports HHS’ Million Hearts Initiative and the goal to prevent one million deaths from heart attacks and strokes over the next five years.

The winning apps are: 

• THUMPr,  first place, enables users to easily create personal heart health profiles and provides individualized heart health recommendations based on the Million Hearts Initiative’s ABCS framework, which stands for aspirin, blood pressure, cholesterol and smoking cessation ($50,000 prize);
• mHealthCoach, second place, incorporates 11 unique data feeds, supports social media integration, peer communities, and fitness groups to educate users about heart health ($20,000 prize); and
• Wellframe, third place, focuses on patient engagement, evidence-based information and resources, targeted and actionable information and ease of usability to provide heart disease risk assessments, social comparisons, educational information and preventive care notifications ($5,000 prize).

The challenge was designed to foster innovative health IT solutions that empower patients to pursue healthy lifestyles and improve their heart health.  These new tools go a long way toward engaging patients and their families to take a more active role in their care and will, hopefully, also contribute to fewer admissions/re-admissions and a better experience with the healthcare system.