Chopra takes a quick break to talk app contests

Chopra

In the race of life, Aneesh Chopra has always been a high-energy guy, but these days he's literally a man on the run.

The former White House chief technology officer is one of two candidates in the race for lieutenant governor in Virginia's Democratic primary on Tuesday.

Chopra took a minute between campaign stops to talk about healthcare information technology software application development contests. He's a big fan of them. Several app contests made the news this week from Health Datapalooza in Washington.

What's the attraction?

If you contract out app development work, Chopra said, you might get 10 firms applying, all among “the usual suspects.”

With contests, he said, “The whole point is you're paying for results and you're dramatically widening the pool of participants. You're talking about thousands of people. You get new ideas to solve the problem. That's step one.

“Step two, the best of those ideas can be tested and validated. The key is, if the best of them can scale … gotta go,” he said.

Chopra, a former Virginia Secretary of Technology, now a senior adviser for technology strategy with the Advisory Board, is running against Dr. Ralph Northam, a pediatrician and a two-term state senator.

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn