AHA wants your innovative solutions to address the social determinants of health

The American Hospital Association (AHA) has launched its 2019 Innovation Challenge, which focusses this year on using technology to address the social determinants of health (SDoH) and connect people with resources to address community health needs.

The SDoH include topics like food, transportation, housing, jobs, and other social inequities that disrupt community health. According to the AHA, 20% of a person’s health outcomes can be attributed to access to care and quality of services, and 80% to physical environment, the SDoH, and behavioral factors. For example, every year in the U.S., 3.6 million individuals don’t have access to medical care due to inadequate transportation, and 40 million people face hunger.

Submissions to the challenge should be proposals that can range from ideas for mobile apps to innovative ways to utilize data collection or artificial intelligence. The top three proposals will earn $100,000, $25,000, or $15,000 that will go toward bringing the winning ideas or models to life.

According to the requirements for the Innovation Challenge, submissions must target a vulnerable population, reference data that supports a need for a new idea or model, and demonstrate how a hospital will support the idea. The full list of criteria is available on the AHA website. Only AHA member hospitals and health systems are eligible for the Innovation Challenge, and the deadline to submit applications is May 24.