Who We Are
The HHS IDEA Lab, within the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, was established to encourage and enable innovation at HHS. We help HHS explore, test and accelerate solutions that improve the delivery of health and human services.
The IDEA Lab is the Department’s go-to resource to solve complex problems with innovative approaches and best practices from federal agencies, industry, and non-profits.
Our Principles
We believe in a few core principles that guide our approach at the IDEA Lab:
- We believe that innovation can come from anywhere and good ideas can come from anyone
- We focus on the user and believe that understanding and meeting the needs of our users is the first priority
- We believe in learning from our mistakes and sharing those lessons learned with our community
- We are biased towards action and believe in starting small
- We see problems as opportunities for growth and improvement
- We believe that people are stronger when working together. We bring together innovators from multiple disciplines and backgrounds to converge on a problem
Our Services
The IDEA Lab works with leadership and front-line staff across all of HHS to improve service delivery in support of the Department’s mission and goals.
Services provided by the IDEA Lab include:
Ignite Accelerator
We help HHS staff solve the right problem for the right customer quickly
Ventures Fund
The Secretary’s Ventures Fund invests in bold ideas
HHS Open Innovation
We engage a global community of solvers to tackle problems
Entrepreneurs-in-Residence
We help recruit talent with unique skill sets to solve complex problems in health and the delivery of human services
Our Vision
Our vision is a more modern and effective government that is responsive to the needs and challenges of today and tomorrow.
We exist as a bridge between the old world and a vision of a new, networked world, where value is found in an individual’s talents and ideas, as opposed to their position in a hierarchical structure. We hack red tape to work smarter, work better in service to the public.
To learn more about our services and working with us, please contact us at idealab@hhs.gov.
