{"id":32654,"date":"2018-11-13T15:19:50","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T20:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/solving-the-opioid-crisis-through-crowdsourcing-contests-hhss-opioid-code-a-thon\/"},"modified":"2018-11-13T19:03:04","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T00:03:04","slug":"solving-the-opioid-crisis-through-crowdsourcing-contests-hhss-opioid-code-a-thon","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/solving-the-opioid-crisis-through-crowdsourcing-contests-hhss-opioid-code-a-thon\/","title":{"rendered":"Solving the Opioid Crisis through Crowdsourcing Contests: HHS\u2019s Opioid Code-a-Thon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every day more than 130 people die from opioid-related drug overdoses in the US; to combat this, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officially signed a Public Health Emergency (October 2017) and sought out new ideas for how to address the epidemic [1].<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>HHS embraced open innovation and hosted a two-day Opioid Code-a-Thon <\/strong>in December 2017, bringing together more than 300 computer programmers, public health experts, data scientists, researchers, and innovators to develop data-driven solutions for one of three categories \u2013 Treatment, Usage, and Prevention \u2013 using a combination of federal, state, and private datasets that had never before been made public [2]. Teams had 24 hours to prototype and develop solutions; 50 teams competed, with 9 selected for the final judging round, and three winners awarded $10,000 in prizes [2]. See below for complete contest details and winners.<\/p>\n

HHS Chief Technology Officer Bruce Greenstein emphasized the importance for crowdsourcing ideas via the Opioid Code-A-Thon because it enabled HHS to \u201cmultiply our combined skills and resources to combat the opioid epidemic\u2026 and create a community that will continue to use data and technology to develop new solutions\u201d [3].<\/p>\n

Government agencies have a history of embracing crowdsourcing to solve big problems, and incentivized open competition has become a standard tool for agencies to tackle a variety of technical, scientific, and creative issues. Agencies, like HHS, embrace challenges<\/em> (crowdsourced idea competitions) because they generate \u201chigh-value solutions to complex problems through large-scale and diverse independent experimentation\u201d [4]. Challenges and prize competitions enable the government to establish ambitious goals and pay only for solutions, without having to preemptively predict which team or approach is likely to succeed. Most importantly, prize competitions attract teams outside the norm, increasing the number of solvers tackling a problem, helping to bring out-of-discipline perspectives, and identifying novel approaches without great risk or cost to taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n

To grow the number of participants in government-sponsored challenges (like the Opioid Code-a-Thon), the US supports Challenge.gov<\/strong>, a central repository website for agencies to post and manage crowdsourcing competitions [5]. The US also has a variety of regulations which designate in which capacity federal agencies can host challenges (e.g., the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act of 2017 \u2013 currently under review as the American Innovation Act of 2018), as well as special contracting vehicles which support agencies launching, managing, and marketing prize competitions [6, 7]. In the future, US agencies will have to continually review and update these regulations and contracting vehicles to enable and incentivize open innovation, while also continue to grow promotion and attraction of the competitions so that diversity of thought continues.<\/p>\n

One question I have for HHS (and other agencies) is how can agencies imbibe this culture of open innovation that is currently centered in one-time or one-off competitions more deeply into the day-to-day culture? The key takeaway from the Opioid Code-a-Thon was not the three winning ideas, but the data set developed for the competition. HHS was able to make public de-identified data from HHS, federal, state, and local government, as well as private industry, which enabled the teams to come up with ideas and new innovative solutions. Is it possible to make more information like this available and develop structures to promote innovative teaming inside and outside HHS more readily so this level of innovation can continue to spread?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve already seen other organizations following the path of HHS\u2019s Opioid Code-a-Thon and using this, and other, data sets to drive innovation and solutions. The University of California Institute for Prediction Technology announced their own Opioid West Hack-A-Thon+ (sponsored by HHS) to further develop new approaches to solving the opioid crisis [8]. The FDA is currently hosting the \u201cInnovation Challenge: Devices to Prevent and Treat Opioid Use Disorder\u201d to increase the development of medical devices to support this space [9]. Can HHS spread this information more broadly and make this a consistent activity?<\/p>\n

Another question I have for HHS (and about crowdsourcing contests more broadly) is about the potential reach of the \u201copen call\u201d for solutions from teams. Most people in the US do not know about Challenge.gov or about these open innovation contests. How do we ensure that engagement in these competitions is not limited to interest groups or the traditional teams of researchers? How can we engage and attract broader networks of people with innovative ideas to contribute?<\/p>\n

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HHS Opioid Code-a-Thon Overview (from the website):<\/strong><\/p>\n

Treatment Track<\/strong>: In addressing the opioid epidemic, HHS is focused on improving access to treatment and recovery services and promoting evidence-based approaches to reduce opioid overdoses, overdose-related mortality, and the prevalence of opioid use disorder.<\/p>\n