Submissions should offer concrete contributions, by example, to the question: How can we build an environment where world class NHS digital services flourish?
Although, any submission does not need to be digital (e.g. a card game would be fine).
Red lines - necessities for a prize
- Something usable must exist
- It must be possible for someone to get some benefit out of the submission tomorrow.
e.g. A usable but buggy system is fine, a set of Photoshop layouts of a system is not. - It was done over the weekend
If people are adding functionality to an existing service, it is only the additional functionality from the weekend that can be considered.
Submissions offering a (semi-)commercial app that they’ve worked on for 6 months is an immediate, automatic, non-appealable, disqualification from consideration.
Other criteria
These are open, flexible, and non-exhaustive.
- Most help to the most in need
- What is the real world benefit to those who need the most support? Does this submission offer a disproportionate outcome to effort?
e.g. A very flashy iPhone app for booking your Private Hospital dinner should rate much lower than a text message notification reminding people without smartphones of their critical appointments/medication. - Do you like it?
That’s important. - Humour also works. Is it actually funny?
- Will it actually work?
Either in practice, or, if you’re not sure, at least generate a conversation that is worth having.
Hard Problems
- A less comprehensive attempt on a very hard problem is at least as good as a flashy attempt on an easy problem.
- Something incredible by one person is better than something mediocre by a team.
- Who built something irrelevant; what is built matters; why it was built can be taken into account (and this may feed into other areas much more strongly).
Minimally invasive procedures
- Submissions that do a more practical job of a key critical aspect, with immediate benefit, even if nothing else at all changes, should be preferred over submissions that require large scale, immediate, fundamental process change.
Policy bombs
- Submissions that severely damage a Government Policy, or a well-funded project, simply by existing, should get at minimum an honourable mention (and their presentation sent to the appropriate bit of Government).