A new crop of innovative problem-solvers have been picked to work on some of the Department of Health and Human Servicesā most vexing challenges.
Now in its eight round, the HHS IDEA Lab Ignite Accelerator program aims to spur innovative problem-solving across the agency by encouraging HHS employees to experiment, test and validate solutions to key departmental challenges.
This year, the teams will work on projects including using Natural Language Processing to process unstructured data during a public health emergency, leveraging geographic information system applications to combat the opioid crisis, and implementing a web-based knowledge integration system to support public health response coordination.
The teams will participate in two-day Boot Camp, where they will be trained in design and entrepreneurial methods. After that, the teams have three months to craft their problem statement, test ideas, and rapidly prototype solutions. Finally, the teams will pitch their idea directly to HHS leadership and the public at HHS Innovation Days.