I’m sure that many of you have enjoyed the writings of Mandi Bishop (maybe more famously known as @mandibpro on Twitter). I feel lucky to have her amazing insights on this blog. I’m also really excited for Mandi, because her and her team are competing in the Code-A-Palooza competition that’s part of the Health Datapalooza events in Washington DC. You know that Mandi’s a true data geek when she compares her participation in the event like the Oscars where “it’s an honor to have been nominated.”
What’s most important is that Mandi and her team (Lauren Still and Nick Kypreos) need your help and support. They’ve created a MedStartr crowdfunding campaign where you can get access to their work and support their efforts. Obviously, it’s not cheap for an independent team like them to compete in the challenge.
They have to be specifically vague in what they’re doing per the Code-A-Palooza rules, but here’s the description of the project they’re working on:
There is no simple solution to find out whether Medicare coverage is available and accepted for YOUR specific healthcare needs wherever and whenever you wish to go. Team ForiDUH is designing a product to make healthcare as accessible as GPS. We need your help to get to Washington, DC and win the Health Data Consortium’s Code-A-Palooza! [all donations are tax deductible!]
I’ve actually seen a preview of their presentation and their solution and it’s a pretty slick idea and use of the Medicare data. While still pretty vague, I think this slide illustrates their solution pretty well and how it can be useful to patients and health systems:
Check out more details on what they’re doing and support their work on the Team ForiDUH MedStartr page.
