Did you know that around 30 million people, or 15% of American adults, have chronic kidney disease (CKD)? The rate of prevalence is even higher for U.S. Veterans, and is the 4th most diagnosed disease among U.S. Veterans. CKD is a dangerous disease that, if not treated appropriately, can ultimately cause kidney failure and require dialysis or a transplant.
Both kidney disease and kidney failure require complex and unique dietary modifications. These dietary changes can delay CKD progression which improves quality of life and reduces patient care costs by delaying the need for dialysis.
While dietitians currently provide Medical Nutritional Therapy and static printed materials to patients with CKD, a new mobile app is needed that provides autonomy and personalized features to help patients make informed food choices.
We are seeking your best idea of app features and gamification elements that will make an app a powerful tool to empower CKD patients to contribute to their own well-being.
The ideas submitted in this challenge may be utilized in follow on challenges that will execute on Topcoder.
See related Topcoder competitions here.
What can you do right now?
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Background
Patients and their caregivers experience multiple challenges that limit their awareness for the risks, behavior and the management of their kidney disease. Information and tools that facilitate informed health decisions and that solicit patient goals and preferences would be useful as a means of nutrition management. Nutrition is a key means by which kidney disease may be delayed, but there is a dearth of understandable tools that positively educate patients and their caregivers about medical nutrition therapy and other lifestyle interventions. A mobile app is needed for patients and their caregivers to utilize in the management and treatment of CKD. The app will include core functionalities to allow individual users to enter or integrate their user profiles, disease state, medical history, lab trends, dietary and fluid tracking, drug interactions and nutrition recommendations so that the user can make informed nutritional decisions. Much of this information will be input or transferred by the end-user.
While the core functionalities are essential to the app, creating a fun and gamified incentive structure will help users stay engaged, work toward their goals, and be best able to contribute to their own well-being.
What can you do?
We are asking you to submit ideas to creatively address one or more of the following items:
- Personal goal setting and prioritization
- Reward structure for specific achievements (for example: goal progress in lowering blood pressure or reducing body weight)
- Utilization of the following blood test results as data types for gamified tracking
- Labs: eGFR (the percent that the kidney functions), albumin, phosphorus, potassium, bicarbonate (CO2), uric acid, hemoglobin A1c.
- Dietary and fluid inputs: grams of protein, milligrams of potassium, sodium, phosphorus
- Other features or functionalities that ties app use or tracking to incentives that promote consistent usage and healthy habits.
Prize
The Department of Veteran’s Affairs will award up to $17,500 in prize money, awarded as follows:
- Up to 10 finalists - $1,000 each
- First Place - $5,000
- Runner up - $2,500
Timeline
Open to submissions November 16, 2017
Submission deadline January 18th, 2018 @ 5pm ET
Winners Announced February 15th, 2018
How do I win?
To be eligible for an award, your proposal must, at minimum:
- Satisfy the Judging Scorecard requirements
- Thoughtfully address the Submission Form questions
- Be scored higher than your competitors!
Judging Scorecard
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Metric
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Description
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Weight
|
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Impact
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Does the idea impact patient health? Does it promote healthy behaviors? Does it promote the ability of a patient to contribute to their own well-being?
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30
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Gamification/ Incentives
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Does the idea promote consistent app use? Does the idea support users in setting and meeting goals? Are meeting key health indicators, lab values, and healthy behaviors rewarded?
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30
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Creativity
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How does the idea differ from existing solutions addressing this problem? How is the solution innovative?
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30
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X-Factor​
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Does the idea go above and beyond the stated criteria in a way that provides unexpected value for CKD patients and/or their caregivers.
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10
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Rules
Participation Eligibility:
The challenge is open to individuals, age 18 or older, private teams, public teams, and collegiate teams. Individual competitors and teams may originate from any country, as long as United States federal sanctions do not prohibit participation (see: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Pages/Programs.aspx).
The following restrictions apply to the Challenge: (1) Federal employees acting within the scope of their employment are not eligible to participate; (2) Federal employees acting outside the scope of their employment should consult their ethics advisor before participating in the Challenge; (3) All employees of the Government, [contractor(s)], Challenge sponsors, and other individual or entity associated with the development or administration of the Challenge, as well as their family members (i.e., spouse, children, parents, siblings, other dependents) and persons living in the same household whether or not related, are not eligible to participate; (4) Contractors receiving Government funding for the same or similar projects, along with their employees, are not eligible to participate in the Challenge.
Submissions must be made in English. All challenge-related communication will be in English.
No specific qualifications or expertise is required. Prize organizers encourage outside individuals and non-expert teams to compete and propose new solutions.
To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement.
Registration and Submissions:
Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before 5pm ET on January 18th, 2018. All uploads must be in PDF format. No late submissions will be accepted.
Intellectual Property:
If Challenge Sponsor notifies Innovator that its Submission is eligible for a Prize, Innovator will be considered qualified as a finalist (“Finalist”). In accepting a Prize, the Finalist hereby grants a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevokable, sublicensable, transferable, world-wide license to the American Society of Nephrology and the The United States Department of Veterans Affairs for the intellectual property they develop for or utilize in the app and all derivative works. The license grant also includes the rights to use and permit others to use all or any part of the submission including, without limitation, the right to make, have made, sell, offer for sale, use, rent, lease, import, copy, prepare derivative works, publicly display, publicly perform, and distribute all or any part of such submission, modifications, or combinations thereof and to sublicense (directly or indirectly through multiple tiers) or transfer any and all such rights. Further, the Finalist agrees to hold the American Society of Nephrology and The United States Department of Veterans Affairs harmless for the use, distribution, copying, and display of the app, its source code, and all derivatives. The Finalist shall further verify that it is the sole owner of any intellectual property developed for the app. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs shall have the right to implement submitted ideas in future applications.
Selection of Winners:
Based on the winning criteria, prizes will be awarded per the Judging Criteria section above. In the case of a tie, the winner(s) will be selected based on the highest votes from the Judges.
Judging Panel:
The determination of the winners will be made by HeroX/Topcoder based on evaluation by relevant Department of Veterans Affairs and American Society of Nephrology reviewers. Individual scores and feedback will not be shared.
Additional Information
- By participating in the challenge, each competitor agrees to submit only their original idea. Any indication of "copying" amongst competitors is grounds for disqualification.
- All applications will go through a process of due diligence; any application found to be misrepresentative, plagiarized, or sharing an idea that is not their own will be automatically disqualified.
- All ineligible applicants will be automatically removed from the competition with no recourse or reimbursement.
- No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the competition.
- Void wherever restricted or prohibited by law.
