The CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network Selects Winners of Its Enviro Health App Challenge

(September 12, 2017) – The CDC’s Environmental Public Health Tracking Network has awarded 3 prizes to winners of its Enviro Health App ChallengeExternal – a challenge that called on the public to submit applications to help people understand the connections between environmental hazards and chronic illness by harnessing the Tracking Network’s vast amount of health and environmental data. One finalist was awarded $20,000, the second finalist received $7,000, with the third finalist receiving $3,000. In addition to the overall challenge winners, two teams were named Honorable Mentions.

Patrick Wall, who led CDC’s effort to sponsor the project, summarized the challenge’s final outcome by stating: “App challenge finalists created innovative and powerful applications that utilize the power of standardized and open environmental health data to allow users unprecedented insights into the environmental health of their community. We are thrilled that the app challenge was able to highlight the Tracking Network as a valuable resource for developers to have direct access to a treasure trove of standardized, curated environmental hazard, human health, and demographic data.”

Enviro Health App Challenge Winners:

1st Prize Winner: Healthy Local

Team Members: Jared Schwartz
Healthy Local provides users with an evidence-based, simple to understand assessment of their community’s impact on various health conditions. The solution platform allows administrators of the product to modify or enhance the user’s results which are driven by CDC’s Tracking Network data.

2nd Prize Winner: Healthy Environ

Team Members: Adam Aisen
Healthy Environ allows users to answer the question, “How healthy is my environment?” Using data from the Tracking Network and other sources, the web application offers a simple interface to provide users with a HealthyEnviron score – a single holistic measure created by aggregating dozen of data points.

3rd Prize Winner: Sol•Air

Team Members: David Park, David Truxall, Brian Chisholm, Andy Jones, Tony Bedard, Sandy Olheiser, Parminder Singh, Jim Peters, Kim Arnett
Sol•Air is a concept app for health and environment conscious individuals wanting a quick overview of the environmental quality of their favorite locations. Users can save locations and dive into deeper detail regarding potential environmental warnings, respective safety tips, and historical data graphs.

Honorable Mentions:

iOS Tracking Data Kit
Team Members: George Gruse

Health Environment Lifestyle Connection Explorer
Team Members: Mohit Jain, Hoa Mattaliano

Winners will be showcased on the Enviro Health App Challenge website at http://envirohealthchallenge.com/External