Pop Health App Contest Winners Named at HIMSS12

A pair of mobile phone application contest winners were announced this week, each with a bent toward bolstering population health by engaging individuals more, and arming them with better health information.

During the Healthcare IT News H.I.T. MEN 2012 awards party, in fact, Farzad Mostashari told some of the attendees that popEye had won $75,000. “I just tweeted it,” Mostashari said. His tweet described popEye as linking “quality measurements to patient engagement – elegant!”

“It’s 5 guys from Columbia [University],” Mostashari said at the party. “They’re informaticists.” Then, late Thursday afternoon at the mHIMSS pavilion, Novartis announced that Sensei Corp. won its CardioEngagement Challenge for its mobile phone app Wellness Plus.

“Open innovation rocks,” proclaimed Brian Goff, vice president and head of Novartis’ primary care business unit. “And, by the way, I just said that so I could sound like Todd Park.”