A. The Challenge

The Center for Health Information and Decision Systems Innovate 4 Healthcare Challenge (the Challenge), sponsored by Johnson & Johnson is a variation on the traditional case competition format. Teams will be provided with a context within which they will employ their creativity, research skills, business acumen, knowledge of health transformation issues, and best practices to conceptualize an innovative health information technology solution and business model to effectively engage patients and health care providers. The context used in the Challenge has been specially designed for this purpose and has not been tested or published previously.

B. The Organizers

The Challenge is organized by the Center for Health Information and Decision Systems (CHIDS) at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business (Smith School) and is sponsored by Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. (JJSI). Hereafter, these organizations will be referred to as the organizers.

C. Eligibility

The competition is open to all post-secondary students enrolled at an accredited U.S. or international college or university. To be eligible, the student must be registered for at least one course in both the fall 2011 and spring 2012 semesters. Students enrolled in an Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) funded Workforce Development Program at an accredited university are also eligible.

D. Team Composition

Each team will be composed of up to five students from the same university system. It is recommended, but not required, that at least one of the students is enrolled in the school’s MBA program. Other team members may be students enrolled in any program at the same university. Teams may find value in forming multi-disciplinary teams combining, for example, students from computer science, business and public health. One of the team members must be designated as the team leader, and will serve as the main point of contact between the team and the organizers. There is no limit to the number of teams any university may enter for the first round. Each student may only participate on one team. Cooperation between teams from the same or different school is not allowed; each team must work independently.

E. Alternates

During the registration process, each team may designate one alternate who fulfills the eligibility requirements listed above. The alternate may participate in the Challenge only in the event of extenuating circumstances that preclude the participation of one of the original team members. A team that seeks to substitute its alternate for an original team member must seek and obtain the approval of the organizers prior to the alternate joining the team and contributing to its work. Once an original team member has withdrawn from the Challenge, s/he may not be reinstated as a team member.

In the event that the team is selected to participate in the final round in Washington, DC and one of the original team members is unable to attend, the alternate may participate, but only after the team seeks and obtains approval from the organizers.

F. Timeline

Note: All time deadlines listed are based on Washington, DC time.

Late submissions will not be considered. While the organizers do not anticipate any changes in the timeline, all dates are subject to change. All teams will be notified of any changes.

G. Communication

Except in the event of exceptional circumstances, or last-minute changes, all official communication will occur through e-mail between the organizers and the designated team leader. It is the responsibility of each team to read e-mails sent from the organizers.

Teams may contact the organizers with logistical questions at contact@innovate4healthcare.com. The organizers reserve the right to not answer questions. If the organizers determine that a response to the team is appropriate, they will publish their response on the Challenge Blog, so that all teams will have access to the information presented. It is the responsibility of each team to check the Challenge Blog regularly, as organizers will not alert teams of new posts.

H. Challenge Structure

The Challenge will be divided into two rounds. All registered teams will submit written responses to the organizers for initial judging. A panel of expert judges will evaluate the responses based on the judging criteria listed below. Up to eight teams will be invited to attend the final round at the Smith School in Washington, DC in which teams will give oral presentations (supplemented by PowerPoint).

I. External Resources and Input

Teams may not consult any current employee from J&J or the Smith School for content input. This includes, but is not limited to conversations, emails, phone calls, and other contact regarding the case. Teams may not consult with one another on issues related to the case; teams from schools with multiple teams are not allowed to consult with other teams from their university or any other institution.

Teams may receive advice and guidance from faculty and third-party consultants, but no one outside of the team may contribute language or exhibits to the submissions. Additionally, all experts consulted for the case must be clearly documented in the Works Cited section at the end of the written submission.

Each team is allowed to reference and use an unlimited number of books, magazines, newspapers, compendiums, readers, collections of articles, and publicly-available Internet resources.

J. Round One Submission Requirements

Round one submissions will be written documents, uploaded as a Microsoft Word and PowerPoint attachment, respectively, at innovate4healthcare.com. The document must be single spaced, written in English, have one inch margins, use Times New Roman font size 12, and be no longer than 15 single-sided pages. This 15-page limit includes a 300-600 word executive summary, but excludes the following required items: title page, exhibits and works cited list. Note that while there is a 15-page maximum, there is no minimum required length for submissions; for example, a succinct, complete five-page submission will be considered as seriously as a 15-page submission.

Submissions should be sent as one Microsoft Word file using the following file-name: schoolname_teamleader'slastname_round1.doc. A complete submission contains (in this order) 1) a cover page that lists only the team members’ names and the title of their submission, 2) a complete response to the Challenge including the executive summary, 3) exhibits, and 4) a works cited list in MLA format. In no place on the submission should the team make any reference to its university or geographical location. Any submissions that do not meet these requirements will not be considered.

The deliverables will include a solution description documenting the following:

1. A prototype of the proposed solution that demonstrates how technology can be used to effectively obtain and synthesize health information, and engage patients and health care providers. Ideally, this prototype would utilize multiple digital modalities to enable patients to work with the platforms (e.g. web, mobile) that best suit their needs. The prototype does not have to be a fully functional system – it may be a “mock-up” or diagram demonstrating the capabilities and workflow.
2. An analysis of all considerations, especially the process model to support the innovation and those related to strategy, policy and technology.
3. A business model, as in how would the solution be covered and paid for with possibilities ranging from consumer out of pocket payment, to reimbursement, to advertising, as examples.
4. A go-to-market recommendation on how best to pilot the idea that may include target locations, methodologies, desired learning, expected costs, and next steps.
5. Evaluation of best practices methods for driving broader adoption amongst consumers/patients, healthcare providers and the larger global healthcare ecosystem.
6. A 10-to-15-slide presentation deck with notes
7. An optional video describing the innovation that is no more than 3 minutes in length.

To ensure fairness, at the onset of the judging process the organizers will assign each submission a number and remove the cover page so that round one judges will not have any information about the university or team members responsible for the submission.

K. Round One Scoring & Judging Criteria

An anonymous panel of expert judges in fields relevant to the prompt will evaluate all submissions based on addressing the key question of patient and HCP engagement described earlier. Submissions will be scored according to the following general criteria:

Detailed judging criteria will be released when the challenge prompt is instigated. Up to eight teams with the highest scores will be invited to participate in the final round of the Challenge.

L. Round One Tie-Breaking

In the event that multiple teams at the cut-off point receive the same number of points (e.g. three teams are tied for 7th or 8th place), a judge who has not seen any of the submissions will break the tie by reading and ranking the submissions.

M. Waitlist

Up to four teams will be placed on a waitlist and will be invited to attend the final round in the event that any of the finalist teams withdraw from the competition.

N. Final Round Submission Requirements

The final round will be predominantly oral. Teams will make presentations in English using Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 or 2010. Final presentations may be no more than fifteen slides in length (including title slide). Presentations will be strictly limited to twenty minutes, followed by up to 10 minutes of questions and answers. After twenty minutes, the team will be cut off. Each present member of a team is required to participate in the team’s presentation but not necessarily in the question period following the presentation.

Finalists must submit their final PowerPoint slides by uploading via the Innovate 4 Healthcare website no later than April 17, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EST. After slides have been submitted, no changes may be made. Final round submissions should use the following file-name: schoolname_teamleader'slastname_finalround.ppt.

Finalists may make changes to their Executive Summaries before the final round. Whether making changes or not, Executive Summaries should be by uploading via the Innovate 4 Healthcare website no later than April 17, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EST. The document must be single spaced, written in English, have one inch margins, use Times New Roman font size 12, and be no longer than 600 words. Finalists must submit their Executive Summaries no later than April 17, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EST. Executive Summaries should use the follow file-name: schoolname_teamleader’slastname_ExecSummary.doc. These submissions should include: a cover page that lists only the team members’ names and the title of their submission and the executive summary. Final round judges will receive these prior to the presentation and will factor them into the final scores given.

The order of the team presentations will be determined by a random drawing. Teams will not know the order until the morning of the competition. For the sake of fairness, teams will not be allowed to watch each other’s presentations. Teams will not have access to private preparation rooms or the presentation computer/room prior to the final round. The organizers will ensure that all PowerPoint Presentations are loaded and ready for the teams to use. Teams may not make any installations on the presentation computer. Teams will not be given additional time for preparation in the event of technical problems. Teams may not bring laptops to the final round. Teams will not have access to printers or computers, and thus are expected to arrive at the final round fully prepared.

The final oral presentation should address all major aspects included in the round one written submission. Teams should consider the judging criteria (below) when determining which content to focus their presentation on.

Additional Guidelines:

1. The slide deck limit is 15 slides, inclusive of backup slides.
2. Teams will have up to 20 minutes to present followed by up to 10
   minutes of questions and answers.
3. There will be a drawing the morning of the competition to determine
   team presentation order.
4. You may embed a video link in your presentation.
5. If you would like to provide the judges a handout that is OK, but
   not expected or required.
6. The deadline to submit the executive summary and slide deck is April 17, 2012, 11:59 p.m. EST.

O. Final Round Scoring & Judging Criteria

The final round judges will be selected by the organizers. They will represent leaders in the fields of health, policy, academe and business, and will include experts in the industry central to the Challenge.

All scores from round one will be discarded and all finalists will enter the final round on equal footing. The final round judges will evaluate all submissions based on addressing the key question of patient and HCP engagement described earlier according to the following general criteria:

Finalists will receive detailed judging criteria. The team with the highest score from the final round presentations will be declared the winner of the Challenge at the subsequent award ceremony the afternoon of April 20th.

P. Final Round Tie-Breaking

In the event that multiple teams receive the highest number of points (e.g. two or three teams tie for 1st place), the final panel of judges will convene privately to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each concept and presentation to determine the rank of the top three teams.

Q. Final Round Guests

To ensure sufficient space for the industry leaders, each team may only bring up to four guests to the final round presentations and award luncheon in Washington, DC. If additional space becomes available, it will be allocated to teams for additional guests on an equitable basis.

R. Prizes and Benefits

The team that wins the final round will receive $20,000. The two runner-up teams will receive $5,000 each. All teams participating in the final round will have the unique opportunity to network with leaders in the field of health IT.

S. Non-return

By participating in the Challenge, Teams grant to the organizers a royalty-free, non-exclusive and irrevocable license to copy, reproduce, display or distribute the technology and data from the Challenge, and to make derivative works based upon the entry or a substantial portion of the entry without attribution or prior permission. Entries become property of the organizers and will not be acknowledged or returned.

T. Right of Refusal

JJSI shall be granted the option of first-right to develop and commercialize any technology, information or data generated from the Challenge, including all of the materials from the contest entries (the “Option”). JJSI will have the right to access the information in the contest entries to determine if it or any of its affiliates wants to develop and commercialize the technology or information. JJSI will receive and retain rights to use and secure intellectual property protection for the technology or information obtained from the Innovation Challenge.

U. Recording

In the final round, the organizers will record all team presentations for the purposes of promoting the Challenge. Teams will have access to a copy of their presentation in the weeks following the final round.

V. Fees and Expenses

There is no registration fee to participate in the Challenge. Teams invited to participate in the final round of competition in Washington, D.C. will be responsible for covering their own accommodation, food, travel, and other related expenses. All finalists, and their guests, will partake be invited to a formal award luncheon, sponsored by the organizers.

W. Non-Compliance

All participants and organizers commit to being fully honest and making a good faith effort to become familiar with and abide by the rules and guidelines, which have been established to ensure utmost fairness in the Challenge. The organizers retain the right to disqualify any individual or team from the competition, and/or from future competitions, if the above rules are not observed. Any concerns or disputes regarding the implementation of the rules and guidelines must be brought to the immediate attention of the organizers. Any decision of the judges is final, and is not subject to review.

X. Spirit of the Challenge

The rules and guidelines are not all encompassing, and situations may arise that have not been covered in this document. The organizers expect that any issues or disputes will be resolved in the spirit of friendly competition and professionalism. It is therefore expected that teams will maintain a proper standard of conduct and, above all, have a fun learning experience.