SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Health 2.0 announced today that it launched its first Health 2.0 Developers World Cup in which teams of developers, innovators, and entrepreneurs worldwide will compete in code-a-thons to build applications and tools that improve healthcare. The winners from each coding competition will face-off inSan Francisco at the 6th Annual Fall Health 2.0 Conference for the Developers World Cup title. All finalists will receive free passes to the conference and a travel stipend. The winning team will receive a $10,000 cash prize, the opportunity to showcase their winning product on the main stage of the conference, and international visibility as world champions.

Health 2.0′s code-a-thons are live one- to two-day events that result in rapid development of concepts and working prototype applications.

“We are building upon the successes of our developer challenges to encourage new ideas and products that enhance health care delivery in the United States,” said Indu Subaiya, Health 2.0 Co-Chairman and CEO. “Improving quality of care and reducing costs are challenges confronting nations around the globe, not just the U.S. Our goal with the Developers World Cup is to unleash the innovation and creativity of the international developer community and bring multi-disciplinary teams comprised of designers, clinicians, patients and entrepreneurs together to address health issues that matter the most in their region.”

The Developers World Cup kicked off yesterday in Delhi with a one–daycode–a–thon that was held in conjunction with Health 2.0 India Conference. The next international code-a-thon will be hosted by the Health 2.0 Fukushima Chapter in Japan on February 21-22, 2012. Other competitions are planned in China, the Netherlands, Russia and several cities in the U.S. The international and U.S. winners will gather at Health Innovation Week in October to refine their entries and then square off in the final competition October, 6-7, 2012 at the 6th Annual Fall Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco.

To learn more about Health 2.0 Developer World Cup, please visit http://www.health2challenge.org/code–a–thon/world–cup/.