TOPx, modeled on The Opportunity Project (TOP), is an innovation program led by Census Open Innovation Labs at the U.S. Census Bureau. Through technology development sprints, TOPx, engages government, technologists and communities to co-create digital products that serve the public using federal open data. To date, more than 1,500 people, 30 federal agencies, and hundreds of organizations have participated in TOP sprints - resulting in over 135 new open data tools including apps, websites, mapping tools, data visualizations, games and more.

The Department of Health and Human Services, in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, facilitated a TOPx technology development sprint focused on a pressing national challenge. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensuring that diagnostic data from testing devices is harmonized, automated, and shared with public health authorities and other key stakeholders is essential. Unfortunately, this process is not currently occurring because diagnostic devices and tests have not previously been coupled with applications or digital software tools. Through this sprint, 12 technology teams, which were selected from the HHS COVID-19 At-Anywhere Diagnostics Design-a-thon, developed digital products to ensure this information is transmitted efficiently, securely and accurately to key stakeholders, including federal, state, local and tribal governments, patients, providers, employers, schools, consumers and others.

In partnership with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Census Open Innovation Labs will host a virtual event on May 25th. This event will showcase digital products created through the TOPx sprint and host conversations with leading experts from government and industry to facilitate learning about the vast responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Virtual Solutions Showcase will feature:

• Government and industry keynote addresses
• Lighting talks from tech teams on the stories and impact of the digital products developed through the sprint
• Opportunities to view live demos of the products and interact directly with teams who built them
• Conversations with communities affected by the pandemic on the importance of digital products in response efforts
• Panel focused on the power of an open process to engage the public on health challenges

The virtual event can be viewed on the Census Bureau’s Census Live page.

12:00pm: Welcome

12:10pm: Keynote Address

12:20pm: ‘Enabling State and Local Virus Tracking’ Community Introduction

12:30pm: Tech Team Lightning Talks

12:50pm: ‘Empowering Operational Decision-Making’ Community Introduction

1pm: Tech Team Lightning Talks

1:10pm: ‘Helping Consumers and Businesses Manage Testing Data Community Introduction

1:20pm: Lighting Talks

12:30pm: Panel Discussion

1:55pm: Closing Remarks

2:00pm: Live Product Demos

Lifepoint Informatics, a healthcare IT company, developed a State Reporting Hub which connects testing devices, applications and laboratories to our Hub, where results are normalized, then routed in real-time to each state jurisdiction via ELR and federal organizations. Lifepoint uses data from the HHS Waters platform.

Comms POC: Ross Cantor

Email: rcantor@lifepoint.com

IBM, a multinational technology company, designed Digital Health Pass to enable organizations to verify COVID-19 health credentials – test results or vaccination status – for employees, customers and visitors entering their site, such as a sports stadium, airplane, university, government building or workplace. The technology is a secure, voluntary alternative to paper vaccination cards or test results and provides another option for individuals to share that they’ve been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19.

Comms POC: Carolyn Castel

Email: Carolyn.Castel@ibm.com

Oracle, an integrated cloud applications and platform services company, developed the COVID-19 Immutable Test Results Submission and Visualization. This product enables real-time reporting of individual and batched results in a trackable manner with confidentiality, integrity of identity, and immutability of data. Oracle uses data from live patient results data feeds including BinaxNOW/Abbott Labs and Ellume COVID-19 Home Tests.

Comms POC: Ellen Foster Kuhn

Email: Ellen.Kuhn@Oracle.com

OraLiva developed a smart testing ecosystem customized for Federally Qualified Health Centers allowing for integration of patient/test data as required by state, federal authorities and affording better COVID-19 patient management.

Comms POC: John T McDevitt

Email: mcdevitt@oraliva.com

ClinIQ developed Virtual Clinic, which uses CDC and other registry related open data sets to provide verified healthcare products and services that are easily accessible for platform customers such as institutional clients or individual patients.

Comms POC: Keith Lepor

Email: keith@virusiq.health

Interpret-COVID developed easy to use Apps to monitor onsite or remote rapid COVID diagnostic test data of individuals or groups from anywhere to keep communities safe. Scanning the test identification number along with anonymized patient information these straightforward Apps enable recording, monitoring and reporting test results securely via a blockchain enabled platform. Interpret-COVID uses data from the HHS Waters platform.

Comms POC: Siromi Gardina PhD, MPH

Email: Siromi.Gardina@gmail.com

Dovel Technologies, a company dedicated to improving public health through strong IT systems, created the Patient Health Ecosystem Portal (PHEP) which uses health.data.gov and VAERS FDA portal to let clinicians share health information with patients, health institutions and health providers.

Comms POC: Jessica Lindberg

Email: jessica.lindberg@doveltech.com

Safe Health Systems, a digital health and connected diagnostics platform, developed the HealthCheck | Connected Testing Platform, a connected testing and universal COVID-19 vaccine credential verification solution for employers and educators. Safe Health Systems uses data from FHIR, HL7 v2, LOINC, VCI/W3C VC, Direct Messaging, C-CDA, and IHE XCA.

Comms POC: Erin Wiese

Email: erin@safehealth.me

UDoTest created a live, at-home testing platform that customizes 78+ at-home disease tests including Covid-19 OTC's. This software platform manages OTC and lab test reporting, improves access to tests and simplifies the entire testing process for enterprises. UDoTest uses data from HL7, API, and SFTP.

Comms POC: Laura Carabello

Email: lcarabello@cpronline.com  

DLC Enterprises developed Co-Verify, a customizable testing, tracking and reporting solution backed by HIPAA compliant Microsoft Azure servers currently being used throughout the United States. Co-Verify uses data standards and LOINC formats as required by states.

Comms POC: Rebecca Johnson

Email: rjohnson@dlcent.com

Net Medical Xpress Solutions, Inc, a telemedicine solutions company, developed Telemed, whichuses federal and local COVID-19 reporting standards to collect required and voluntary data surrounding viral testing for private and public organizations. Net Medical Xpress Solutions Inc uses data from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Comms POC: Richard Govatski

Email: ceo@netmedical.com

Join the conversation online using #OpportunityProject and follow @uscensusbureau on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Tag @uscensusbureau in your Social Media posts. There will also be designated times throughout programming where we will encourage social media sharing.