The HHSinnovates Program: Winners’ Gallery
Background on HHSinnovates
The HHSinnovates program was created as part of our Open Government efforts to celebrate innovation by employees of HHS. The program is aimed at building a culture of innovation at HHS through facilitating the exchange of innovative ideas throughout the Department. This contest seeks not only to recognize and reward good ideas but also to help promote them across the Department.
Twice a year, HHS employees are invited to submit innovations via an internal intranet site. The top innovations are posted for secure, on-line voting and commenting by the entire HHS community. The winning innovations are recognized by the Secretary in an awards ceremony and the innovators are personally invited to share their innovations with the Department’s leadership.
The first round of HHSinnovates was launched in May 2010, the second round was launched in October 2010, and the third round was launched in May 2011. The last three rounds of HHSinnovates have demonstrated how HHS employees have overcome resource constraints, packed schedules and organizational silos to provide creative, replicable and sustainable innovations that demonstrate outstanding leadership and promising results.
Winning Innovations Selected by Secretary Sebelius
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 | Round 1 Winners | Round 2 Winners | Round 3 Winners | Round 5 Winners | Round 6 Winners |  | |||
Million Hearts™ Initiative
Public-private partnership aimed at preventing one million heart attacks and strokes in five years.
Learn how the public and private sectors are using innovative approaches to collaboration, information dissemination, and project management to prevent heart disease and stroke, two of the nation’s leading causes of death. This innovation brings together broad expertise and establishes a central focus on a range of public health and clinical practice strategies to address significant national health issues. More details ...
Preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse
What does a zombie apocalypse have to do with public health preparedness? Everything! Learn how a tongue-in-cheek blog post, complemented by social media outreach, drove an unprecedented number of visitors to CDC’s emergency webpage where they learned about protecting their families and homes during a disaster. More details ...
Connecting Kids with Dental Care
Making it easy for families to find the dental care their children need to grow up healthy.
Learn how the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and the States’ Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) agencies applied innovative methods to create a web-based locator tool to match kids enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP with oral health providers who will treat them. More details...
Electronic Patient Tracking in Disasters
In the face of a natural or man-made disaster, health care providers need to track patient counts, patient severity status, and patient location to make timely decisions.
The Bethesda Hospitals' Emergency Preparedness Partnership Patient Tracking and Locating System is an exportable suite of electronic tools that significantly advances the ability of hospitals to manage high volumes of incoming patients. More details...
Leveraging the Public to Catch Fugitives
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) is pursuing 170-plus fugitives who have defrauded Medicare, Medicaid, and taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars. Focusing attention on these health care criminals via the Most Wanted Health Care Fugitives Website effectively harnesses a previously untapped resource: the public.
Find out how public attention helps catch the crooks who steal our tax dollars. More details ...
Bridging the CHASM of Health Disparities
Community Health and Service Missions (CHASM) addresses the needs of underserved populations and builds communities’ health infrastructure while providing essential emergency management and response training for the United States Public Health Service (USPHS). More details ...
Frequently Asked Questions about the HHSinnovates Contest
Who can submit nominations to the HHSinnovates contest?
Only HHS employees are allowed to submit individual or team nominations (though innovation teams may include non-HHS employees) to the contest. Self-nominations are allowed.
How can HHS employees submit nominations or vote for their favorite innovations?
HHS employees can learn more about the contest and submit a nomination or vote via the HHS intranet.
Which kinds of innovations are eligible for the HHSinnovates contest?
For purposes of this contest, innovation is defined as the introduction of something entirely new (e.g., a product, process, system, service, or business model) or an unusual application of an existing tool used to improve HHS’s ability to accomplish its mission.
Eligible innovation categories include, but are not limited to: process, technology, relationship/partnership, communication, workforce development, and sustainability innovations. Other types of innovations will also be considered.
Eligible innovations must have been piloted or implemented in the last 30 months.
Innovations must have generated significant innovation success; OR generated limited/early success and have given HHS new knowledge that can be used for future improvement.
How are the innovations evaluated in the HHSinnovates contest?
Submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:
- Quality of the application
- Importance of the innovation to the OPDIV/STAFFDIV and HHS mission
- Novelty of the innovation
- Impact on HHS and OPDIV/STAFFDIV mission and target populations
- Usefulness of the lessons learned within the OPDIV/STAFFDIV
- Potential for transferability and scalability across HHS and beyond
What do winners of the HHSinnovates contest receive?
All finalists will be invited to an employee recognition ceremony. Up to 3 innovations will be recognized as the “Secretary’s Top Picks” per award round. The Secretary’s Picks will be given cash prizes of up to $2,500 per team member for a maximum of 7 members per team (note: only HHS employees and HHS Commissioned Corps personnel are eligible for such prizes). The Secretary may also recognize up to 3 “Honorable Mentions.” The honorable mentions will not receive cash prizes but will be invited to participate in the ceremony and will receive public recognition.
What is the People’s Choice Award?
In September 2012, we added a new element to the contest: the selection of a People’s Choice Award. Based on input from the HHS community, we have selected the top six innovations for Round 6. We posted summaries of these innovations and asked the public to help us decide which of these six innovations is most innovative and impactful.
