Healthy Communities Institute Wins Department of Health and Human Services Developers' Challenge.

Healthy Communities Institute announced that it has won the Developers Challenge award from the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

According to a release, the company's Healthy Communities Network was recognized for its key indicator and tracking capabilities, which assists public and private organizations at the state and local level to achieve benchmarks for the federal Healthy People 2020 initiative. Assistant Secretary Howard Koh and Chief Technology Officer Todd Park from HHS were on hand for the awards in San Diego, Calif.

"Technology is a core component of this administration's drive to measurably improve the overall health for U.S. citizens over the next decade. Providing key stakeholders with the tools required to make effective policy and strategy decisions is critical towards reaching these goals," said Deryk Van Brunt, HCI CEO and Associate Clinical Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley.

"We're delighted to be recognized for our innovative and affordable cloud-based solutions that gives community organizations ready access to the most currently available data for their specific communities."

The HCN provides:

-A dashboard of over 100 local health and quality of life indicators to help communities conduct health needs assessments, and meet Public Health Accreditation Board assessment requirements.

-A database of 1500+ promising practices to help plan evidenced-based community health improvement programs and policies.

-The Healthy People 2020 Tracker to help communities track their progress towards meeting HP 2020 health goals, and provides resources to help communities achieve locally-defined health goals.

Healthy Communities Institute works with hospitals, health systems, coalitions and health departments to improve community health. The company's multi-disciplinary team is comprised of healthcare information technology veterans, academicians, health informatics experts, epidemiologists, urban planners, and Internet developers. HCI began its work in 2002 in concert with the growth of the Healthy Cities Movement co-founded at the University of California, Berkeley.

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