Yesterday the Knight Foundation announced 40 semifinalists for the Knight News Challenge on Health.

Most of the semifinalists seek to create data-driven tools that could be used to understand and improve the health of any community. For example:

• Particulate Matters. A joint effort by Stamen Design, the Chabot Space and Science Center and the Univ. of California-Berkeley, this project would create a localized air quality reporting and data visualization toolkit.
• The first U.S. organ donor registry. The U.S. has an inefficient organ donation system, which leads to unnecessary deaths and exorbitant healthcare costs. This project would enable seamless dataflow between existing state registries, streamline user registration, and create an infrastructure for academic analysis of the data.
• Healthcare price shopping. Right now it's very difficult, if not impossible, for consumers to do much price comparison for healthcare services. This project would create an open national database for common cash-pay medical services and procedures. It will initially focus on providing clear pricing data for 70 routine medical procedures that are commonly not covered by insurance. ("Think eye exams, dental exams, vaccines, and acupuncture sessions, not brain surgery or emergency care.")

Two semifinalists are focused on specific states: OurHealth (Ky.) and OurHIA (Mass.). Only one semifinalist, Camden (NJ) Health Metrics Explorer, is focused on just one city.

Through Oct. 2, during the "refinement" phase of the Challenge, semifinalists will make revisions to their entries as well as submit additional information about their projects and a brief video. Then the judging will begin, and winners will be announced in January.