Health Datapalooza IV Code-a-Palooza:
A Health Data Consortium Event

Dates
June 2nd- June 4thPrizes
- First Place: $15,000
- 2nd Place: $7,000
- 3rd Place: $3,000
Background
The Health Datapalooza IV Code-a-Palooza was a Socrata/HDC/ONC/CMS event that took place from June 2nd-4th in Washington DC.
Description
Overview
Ten teams were selected to compete for $25,000 in prizes in a code-a-thon leveraging a high-value Medicare data set. The selected teams competed to build an app, tool, or product that could be directly used by primary care providers and/or their office staff to improve the quality of care they deliver towards the total health of their patients.
To support them during this competition, they got the opportunity to hear from some incredible experts from the following domains: Policy/Government, Health Care Innovation, and Technology.
Check out the full speaker lineup on the The Official Health Datapalooza Site
Team Formation and Criteria for Selection
This code-a-thon was for teams of up-to four individuals. Teams were encouraged to collectively have the skillsets and expertise to develop an app, tool, or product – or a prototype of an app, tool, or product – that could be incorporated into clinical settings.
The selection of the teams were made by event organizers based on the following criteria:
Demonstrated experience in application/product development (coding, design, etc)
Demonstrated experience in the clinical care settings, particularly primary care
Teams should submit (see the bottom of this page) a single application to compete in the Code-a-Palooza. The Code-a-Palooza code-a-thon is a component of the Datapalooza event. Therefore, each individual on the team must also register to attend Health Datapalooza IV.
To compete in the Code-a-Palooza, teams submitted a single application on the registration page.
The Data
The Health Data Consortium has purchased recently-released Medicare claims data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This data is being made available for free to the teams selected to compete in the Health Datapalooza Code-a-Palooza. This is a rare opportunity for individuals to use Medicare claims data without purchasing the data directly from CMS.
The data set contains 2011 Medicare Parts A and B claims for a 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries and includes inpatient, outpatient, home health, hospice, skilled nursing facility, carrier, and durable medical equipment (DME) claims. The files are linked by a unique beneficiary identifier that is consistent within a file and across files.
Selected teams were required to sign a CMS Data Use Agreement (DUA) prior to gaining secure access to the dataset. Teams received additional information on the data set and data dictionaries to help them understand the data set. Selected teams had the opportunity to ask Medicare claims data experts questions prior to the event.
At the conclusion of the code-a-thon, teams no longer had access to the data.
Agenda
March 26: Applicant registration period opens
May 15: Last day to apply
May 19: Selected teams announced
May 22: Selected teams given secured access to data.
May 22-29: Training and Q+A opportunities for selected teams
June 2 @ 3pm: Specific topic and judging criteria announced and the Code-a-Palooza begins.
June 4 (mid-day): Code-a-Palooza ends.
June 4 (end of Day): Winners announced on stage.
Partners
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) is at the forefront of the administration’s health IT efforts and is a resource to the entire health system to support the adoption of health information technology and the promotion of nationwide health information exchange to improve health care. ONC is organizationally located within the Office of the Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Socrata
Socrata is a Seattle-based cloud software company, focused exclusively on democratizing access to government data. We help public sector organizations improve transparency, citizen service and fact-based decision-making by efficiently delivering data to citizens, employees and developers in a user-friendly experience on web, mobile and machine-to-machine interfaces.The Socrata suite of products helps our customers unlock the full value of their data: