Free crisis counselling via text message, environmental health monitoring with low-cost tools, and a database that aggregates information on health and social services are among seven projects that received a total of $2.2 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as winners of the 2013 Knight News Challenge‘s second and final round.
While the previous round focused on open government, this second concentrated on healthcare.
Open Human Networks was awarded the biggest prize: $500,000 to help develop an online portal that will allow patients to share their personal health information with researchers and support medical studies.
The other winners were Crisis Text Line, Homebrew Sensing Project, Ohana API, Camden Health Explorer, Positive Deviance Journalism, and SafeUseNow.
The theme for the first round of this year’s challenge will be announced soon.
Edirin Oputu is a former assistant editor at CJR. Follow her on Twitter @EdirinOputu