Got a knack for making apps? $100,000 prize offered by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced an "Aligning Forces for Quality" $100,000 “app challenge” – a competition among technology developers to create easy-to-use online tools that help consumers find information on the quality of their local physicians and hospitals.

In the challenge, competing developers will create applications for various devices including smartphones or iPads that will allow consumers to easily access and experience comparative information about the quality of care provided in various regions of the country. Data to fuel the app will come from RWJF’s Aligning Forces for Quality initiative, the foundation’s signature effort to improve the quality of health care in 16 targeted communities nationwide. The Aligning Forces app challenge will be conducted in two phases. Phase one is an open challenge for interested developer teams to create and submit new applications using Aligning Forces data. In phase two, the developer teams will work with AF4Q communities to further refine their applications with independent judges, including leaders and patients from Aligning Forces communities. The developer of the winning app will receive $100,000. The second place winner will receive $25,000, and the third place winner will be awarded $5,000. Winners will be announced in June 2012.