HealthLandscape Hosts U.S. CTO Todd Park and Presidential Innovation Fellows

Todd Park, U.S. CTO

HealthLandscape was honored to co-host the Innovation Open House Discussion with Todd Park, Chief Technology Officer of the United States, and several members of the first class of Presidential Innovation Fellows this past Friday. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center (the event venue) was co-host.

Macon Phillips, Director of Digital Strategy at the White House

Local entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and civic leaders spent one-on-one time with Mr. Park, Macon Phillips, Director of Digital Strategy at the White House, and several of the Fellows to discuss how government and business can work together to spur the economy and increase opportunity and job growth.

Conversation centered around the Presidential Innovation Fellows program's five projects:

• Blue Button: Blue Button (@ProjectBlueBtn) will spread the ability for Americans to easily and securely download their own health information electronically. 
• RFP-EZ: RFP-EZ (@ProjectRFPEZ) will streamline the "request for proposal" interaction between the government and small high-growth tech businesses, to make it easier for each to work with the other.
• MyGov: MyGov (@ProjectMyGov) will make it easier for citizens to access information and services from the federal government.
• The 20% Initiative: The 20% Initiative (@ProjectTwenty) will transition development assistance payments from cash to electronic methods, lowering administrative costs and reducing theft, fraud, and violence.
• Open Data Initiatives: Open Data Initiatives (@ProjectOpenData) will accelerate and expand administration efforts to make government data more publicly accessible and encourage entrepreneurs to use the data to create new products, services, and jobs. (The Health Data Initiative [HDI] is among the first Open Data Initiatives. HealthLandscape has participated in all three HDI Forums, a.k.a. Health Datapaloozas.)

Park has been traveling around the country, hosting meetups, Datapaloozas (the Energy Datapalooza just wrapped up), and code-a-thons to find creative ways to spread the word and spark interest among entrepreneurs. The projects are tough, but tractable challenges whose solutions could provide immediate benefits and cost savings to citizens, entrepreneurs, and businesses.

"We're relying on the American entrepreneurial spirit to tackle these challenges," he said.