There have been numerous competitions to encourage startups to develop new ideas and products that will help shape the future of information technology. Centered on developing applications around health care, Rock Health, the SF Startup accelerator for Health Care Apps, announced the 10 winners of its inaugural, intense five-month program designed to produce disruptive applications targeting all areas of the health industry.

The winners were derived from over 200 applicants. They are the new faces in health applications whose ideas are tools to revolutionize the way we deal with health-related challenges. These applications, developed to address personal health and patient care, were made by developers of different backgrounds which is dominated by people who have experience in healthcare management difficulties and are inspired by these encounters.

The Rock Health selected 2011 start-ups are:

* BrainBot (technology to improve mental performance)
* CellScope (at-home diagnosis of diseases)
* Genomera (personal health collaboration)
* Health In Reach (medical procedure marketplace)
* Omada Health (clinical treatment social networking)
* Pipette (patient monitoring and education)
* Skimble (mobile fitness)
* WeSprout (connecting health data and community)
* Three additional startups in stealth mode

In the United States, the Kaufmann Foundation is working on Startup Open, a competition that recognizes startups with high-growth potential, in search for the 50 most promising startups in the world as part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week. It is now on its seconds year and is participated by over a hundred countries.

“Economic growth and job creation is directly tied to young businesses with the potential to become part of tomorrow’s Fortune 500, so recognizing and rewarding those most promising startups on the path to success may inspire others to follow their examples,” said Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation.

An especially important area where startups are robustly encouraged, the Nordic region has been spewing out startup programs recently. The Summer of Startups, for example, has been spreading all over Europe with Estonia as its latest reach. A 9-week program will be held for developers to get a gauge whether or not their ideas will work in the real world. From a couple of hundred participants, it will be narrowed down to 30, and then only 8 of them will be left to compete for the finals, each with a prominent mentor.