Event & Logistics

What is the schedule for the event?

The DataJam will be open for submissions from Thursday, February 23, 2023 to Monday, May 15, 2023, at 5:00 p.m. ET. Submissions must be uploaded by the deadline in order to be considered. Judges will evaluate submissions and winners will notified May 2023.

Participation

Who is eligible?

Anyone is eligible to participate!

How do I register?

There’s no need to register for the event. Please see below for submission requirements.

Is the DataJam for individuals or teams?

Both individual and team submissions are welcome. However, we encourage multi-disciplinary team submissions, and we strongly recommend including a community member or user perspective relevant to the question you are investigating.

The Competition

How do I access the data?

All datasets available for the DataJam are publicly accessible. Find a full list of recommended datasets at HealthData.gov. Additionally, individuals and teams are welcome to integrate any outside datasets as well, as long as they are publicly available, and submissions do not violate existing copyright or privacy laws.

What datasets are available for the DataJam?

Healthdata.gov includes publicly available federal, state, and local government datasets. Participants may augment these datasets with additional, publicly available data if they choose. Additionally, each challenge track has a list of curated datasets related to that particular challenge topic for participants to use as a starting point. Please note that submissions should include use of at least one dataset from healthdata.gov.

Are participants required to use all datasets?

No. The only requirement is that participants use at least one dataset from healthdata.gov.

What are the prizes?

The overall winning team will receive three (3) free registrations to a 2024 AcademyHealth conference of their choice as well as three (3) annual AcademyHealth membership passes. Each “Best-in-Class” winning team will receive a certificate.

When an overall winner is also the best-in-category, a second “best-in-category” will be selected from that focus area, so some categories may recognize two teams as equally tied as best-in-category winners.

Selected winners will have the opportunity to present their submissions at an AcademyHealth webinar, hosted in summer 2023. All participants who meet submission criteria will receive a certificate noting their participation in the event.

What are the submission requirements?

Submissions can be in the form of a variety of media including new datasets, data visualizations and analyses, and multimedia items such as videos explaining the identified data solution. Each submission must also include the following:

  • Team Name (if applicable), Participant Name(s), Email(s), and Organization(s)
  • Data resources used
  • Written summary of the solution (500 words or less)
  • PDF containing open-source access to any code (if applicable)
  • URL link to a 3-5 minute video demonstrating the solution (YouTube, Vimeo, Instagram, etc.)

How will solutions be judged?

Solutions will be judged on the following criteria. Judges will evaluate and score each submission with a value between 0–5 for each criterion, with zero lowest and five highest score. The sum of points will be that individual or teams’ final score.

  • Design: The solution considers user-centered design principles. The solution is visually appealing, well laid out, intuitive, and easy to use and understand.  
  • Innovation: The solution represents a new, original idea that integrates data or approaches a data-related challenge in an unprecedented and novel way.
  • Potential for Impact: The solution has a clear user and positions local, state, and/or federal actors to make significant strides in advancing health equity. 
  • Relevance: The solution is timely and specifically addresses one of the challenge topics posed by the DataJam.
  • Technical Achievement: The solution addresses the primary goals of the DataJam through connecting a variety of data sources OR addressing data limitations in a novel way OR showing ways to enhance/improve existing functions or share data across agencies and more efficiently utilize existing applications.
  • Patient Engagement: The team includes a patient who meaningfully informs the solution development or the solution responds to a defined patient concern listed for the competition.

What are the rules related to IP rights for this DataJam?

  • Upon submission, each Applicant warrants that he or she is the sole author and owner of the work and any pertinent Intellectual Property (IP) rights, that the work is wholly original of the Applicant (or is an improved version of an existing work that the Applicant has sufficient rights to use – including the substantial improvement of existing open-source work), and that it does not infringe any copyright or any other rights of any third party.
     
  • Upon submission, applicants consent to grant AcademyHealth and HHS an unlimited, non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide license and right to reproduce, publicly perform, publicly display, and use the Submission for promotional purposes related to Health Datapalooza and the 2023 DataJam.
     
  • Submissions must be free of malware. Participant agrees that AcademyHealth and HHS may conduct testing on the product to determine whether malware or other security threats may be present. AcademyHealth may disqualify a submission if, in AcademyHealth’s judgement, it may damage the sponsors or others’ equipment or operating environment.
     
  • Participants retain ownership of any software, research, or other intellectual property (IP) that they develop in connection therewith. Winning applicants agree to grant a perpetual, royalty-free license to the Federal Agency sponsor (HHS) for the use of the IP developed in connection with the DataJam as set forth herein.
     
  • If the Submission includes any third-party works (such as third-party content or open-source code), the Participant must be able to provide, upon request, documentation of all appropriate licenses and releases of such third party works. If the Participant cannot provide documentation of all required licensures and releases, AcademyHealth reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to disqualify the applicable Submission.

Additional Information

Where can I go for additional information?

Please visit the Health Equity DataJam page for more information.

How can I get answers to other questions?

If you are not able to find the answers to your questions at the website listed above, please email info@academyhealth.org. We will respond to your inquiry within 3 business days.