By THCB STAFF

Scott Shreeve, MD, Senior Health Advisor at The X Prize Foundation and frequent THCB contributor, has asked the health care blogosphere to take part in this blog rally in order to raise awareness about the Healthcare X Prize Foundation competition and encourage public participation in the prize design.  Pass the word around and feel free to post this to your own blog if possible.

We are
entering an unprecedented season of change for the United States health
care system. Americans are united by their desire to fundamentally
reform our current system into one that delivers on the promise of
freedom, equity, and best outcomes for best value. In this season of
reform, we will see all kinds of ideas presented from all across the
political spectrum. Many of these ideas will be prescriptive, and don’t
harness the power of innovation to create the dramatic breakthroughs
required to create a next generation health system.

We believe there is a better way.

This
belief is founded in the idea that aligned incentives can be a powerful
way to spur innovation and seek breakthrough ideas from the most
unlikely sources. Many of the reform ideas being put forward may not
include some of the best thinking, the collective experience, and the
most meaningful ways to truly implement change. To address this issue,
the X PRIZE Foundation, along with WellPoint Inc and WellPoint Foundation as sponsor, has introduced a $10MM prize
for health care innovators to implement a new model of health. The
focus of the prize is to increase health care value by 50% in a 10,000
person community over a three year period.

The Healthcare X PRIZE team has released an Initial Prize Design
and is actively seeking public comment. We are hoping, and encouraging
everyone at every opportunity, to engage in this effort to help design
a system of care that can produce dramatic breakthroughs at both an
individual vitality and community health level.

Here is your opportunity to contribute:

1. Download the Initial Prize Design
2. Share your comments
   regarding the prize concept, the measurement framework, and the
   likelihood of this prize to impact health and health care reform.
3. Share
   the Initial Prize Design document with as many of your health,
   innovation, design, technology, academic, business, political, and
   patient friends as you can to provide an opportunity for their
   participation

We hope this blog rally amplifies our efforts to
solicit feedback from every source possible as we understand that
innovation does not always have a corporate address. We hope your
engagement starts a viral movement of interest driven by individual
people who realize their voice can and must be included. Let’s ensure
that all of us – and the people we love – can have a health system that
aligns health finance, care delivery, and individual incentives in a
way that optimizes individual vitality and community health. Together,
we can ensure the best ideas are able to come forward in a transparent
competition designed to accelerate health innovation. We look forward
to your participation.