To qualify for participation, teams should include only students in degree-pursuing graduate programs (including clinicians in training, such as residents and fellows, as well as post-doctoral fellows pursing MA or MS degrees) or Graduate Certificates. Undergraduate students are welcome to participate in design teams, provided that they are supervised by graduate students. Given the nature of the creative process, we suggest that teams include no more than four or five individuals. Because of our focus on fostering multidisciplinary teams, the SDC will not accept submissions from single individuals. No faculty advising is required for participation; in fact, we encourage teams to work independently and with minimal faculty supervision.
Each team will be asked to identify a specific challenge related to the proposed theme. We recommend that teams select a specific context of use and target audience, for example “Using interactive simulations to examine potential impact of treatment on blood pressure in patients with hypertension” or “Using conversational agents to facilitate shared decision making among providers and patients in regards to genetic testing in cancer”. In both of these scenarios the focus of the solution should be on new ways to engage patients and providers with intelligent decision support that goes beyond traditional alerts.
To be considered for the inclusion in the challenge, the teams must begin by developing a one-page proposal that specifies the problem and context, describes gaps in existing solutions, and proposes an innovative solution for delivery of decision support. The proposals will be judged on their innovation and transformative potential, as well as on their feasibility. We expect that the best proposals will incorporate already established computational capabilities (predictive models, inference engines, etc.), and focus on delivery mechanisms. The five teams selected to develop their proposals will be expected to articulate their solution in a way sufficient to demonstrate their functionality. This could include interactive prototypes or mockups. Fully functional prototypes that integrate with computational analytical engines are encouraged, but not required for the submission.
Competition Process
Each team will submit an abstract (1-2 pages) describing the specific challenge and context for their solution, their vision for the solution, and provide evidence of its feasibility (existing computational analytical engines either developed by the teams, or in published literature).
The submission process will be done through ScholarOne (more details on the submission process are to follow). The submissions will be evaluated through a peer-review process by the SDC steering committee.
The five best proposals will be invited to participate in the virtual summer training program delivered online (no travel required). The program will include a set of interactive lectures on topics relevant to the design of interactive systems in health and clinical decision support and will be delivered by leading researchers in biomedical informatics and HCI. Further, the teams will have a chance to discuss their emerging solutions and receive feedback from mentors assigned to each team. Most of the training program is expected to occur in July-August 2019.
At the end of the training program, the teams will be asked to submit an extended abstract (5 page maximum) describing their solution. These abstracts will be submitted via email directly to the SDC chairs. A panel of judges will review submitted abstract and will select 3 finalists for the final phase of the challenge.
All five teams participating in the training program will asked to present their solutions during a poster session at the AMIA 2019 Annual Symposium. At least one member from each of the five teams will be expected to attend the conference to present a poster illustrating their solution, discuss their solution, and the design process with conference attendees. AMIA will waive the registration fee for one presenter from each of the five teams, with the expectation that the presenter holds a student membership with either AMIA or ACM.
Three teams will also be notified prior to the symposium that their proposal has been selected as a finalist for the AMIA SDC Award. They will be asked to give a presentation about their solution during the AMIA Student Design Challenge session. The three finalists will give an oral presentation and, where appropriate, demonstration of their design to the panel of SDC Judges and AMIA attendees. The judges will rank the solutions and presentations to identify the winner and subsequent second and third place teams. The winners will be announced during the last day of AMIA Annual Symposium and acknowledged during the AMIA Closing Plenary.
Proposal Preparation
The participants will prepare an abstract (1-2 pages) written in the AMIA format that must include:
- Definition of the selected problem grounded in deep understanding of an identified health problem;
- Discussion of gaps in existing decision support solutions addressing the same problem;
- Description of the novelty/originality of the proposed solution;
- Establishing the feasibility of the proposed solution (evidence of existing computational capabilities, or knowledge needed to implement the proposed solution).
The completed abstract should be submitted using ScholarOne by 11:59 p.m. EDT on June 15, 2019. If you do not already have a ScholarOne account, you will need to create one. AMIA member log-in will not provide access to ScholarOne.
Proposal Review Criteria
The proposals will be reviewed using the following criteria:
- Justification of the selected problem (does the proposal provide sufficient justification for the selected problem and its applicability for computerized decision support)
- Fit to the problem (how likely is the proposed solution to address the selected problem?)
- Innovation (how novel and original is the solution?)
- Feasibility of the solution (evidence of computational analytical capability, or knowledge resources necessary to implement the solution)
Awards
The SDC awards ceremony will take place during the last day of AMIA Annual Symposium.
Timeline
- June 15: Submission deadline for proposals
- June 30: Invitations to top five teams sent
- July 15 - August 15: Summer training program
- August 30: Final Submissions
- September 15: Notifications to top three teams selected for oral presentations
- November 19: Presentation at AMIA 2019 Annual Symposium