By Matthew Holt and Paul Wilder, NYeC

Imagine New Yorkers: you have access to your healthcare records when and where you need them. As easy as logging onto your banking website. You can print out a list of your current medications, see when the last time you had a test or immunization was, see recent test and lab results, and manage your consent for which doctors and specialists you want to be able to see your records too. Safely. Securely. YOUR health information when YOU need it.

This is what the New York eHealth Collaborative (NYeC) is planning for the future of New York and why today, in partnership with Health 2.0, we’ve launched the Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge.

The deadline for challenge submissions is April 11th.

This is the first step in beginning to design what this portal— essentially a website for patients to access their medical records online—will look like. The Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge has $25,000 in prizes. We are calling all designers and developers to submit prototypes for the portal. The top portal interface designs will be chosen, publicized, and voted upon by New Yorkers after the April 11th deadline. The winner will be announced early this summer.

Designers and Developers: we want you to innovate and put on your most creative caps for this exciting challenge. New Yorkers need to be able to see their information in a way that’s easy to use and meaningful to them. This is a chance to make a big difference in the healthcare of 20 million New York residents.

After the challenge is over we’ll begin to build the portal so that in the near future patients will have full access to their healthcare information via NYeC’s secure health information exchange network. Information is empowering and empowered patients who are active in their healthcare are healthier patients.

For more information on the Patient Portal for New Yorkers Design Challenge, and to submit a prototype by April 11th, please register below:

Deadline to Submit: April 11, 2013