US20120295676A1

US20120295676A1 - Health scoring and competition

Info

Publication number: US20120295676A1
Application number: US13/112,603
Authority: US
Inventors: Robert Scott Ackerson; Brian Robert Carter; Clay Patterson
Original assignee: Cerner Innovation Inc
Current assignee: Cerner Innovation Inc
Priority date: 2011-05-20
Filing date: 2011-05-20
Publication date: 2012-11-22

Abstract

Systems and methods for collaborating health goals between members of a user group are provided. Collaborating health goals may include appointing a commissioner to determine the parameters of a health goal competition. The commissioner may invite one or more group members to participate in a health goal competition. To add motivation and interest to the competition, the health goal competition may be organized as teams of users with a team winning the competition. Health goal competitions may include weight loss competitions, fitness challenges, activity level challenges, smoking cessation challenges, healthy eating challenges, etc.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None

FIELD

The present disclosure relates to health care scoring and competitions.

BACKGROUND

Motivating patients or other users to achieve various health objectives is problematic. Users may set lofty goals without support to meet those goals. A support group may help users to stay motivated and accountable; however, organizing and coordinating a support group can be cumbersome.

SUMMARY

Examples are directed to methods, computer systems, and computer-storage media for use in collaborating health goals between users in a variety of settings and applications. The method for collaborating health goals between multiple users may provide a simpler and more effective organization and support for users wishing to achieve a set of health goals. Moreover, the method may provide a competitive atmosphere for the achievement of the one health goal or set of health goals. Competition may improve user participation and also motivate users to achieve results and goals beyond what they might achieve alone or in a non-competitive environment.
In one example, a method of collaborating health goals between two or more users may be executed from computer-executable instructions stored on computer-storage media. The method of collaborating health goals may comprise assigning at least one health goal for a health goal competition by a commissioner. The method may also comprise inviting one or more users to participate in the health goal competition and enrolling the one or more users to participate in the health goal competition. Inviting the one or more users may comprise sending a hyperlink to the one or more users, and the hyperlink may direct the one or more users to a website, which provides instructions to the one or more users for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition. The method may further comprise tracking the progression of the one or more participating users towards the at least one health goal and determining at least one winner of the one or more participating users of the health goal competition.
In addition, the method may comprise notifying the one or more users and the at least one commissioner of the progression of the one or more users towards the at least one health goal. The health goal competition may comprise a weight-loss challenge. The health goal competition may comprise a series of challenges and points are assigned for the completion of each challenge such that accrual of points is at least one factor in determining the at least one winner of the health goal competition. The method may further comprise providing an internet-based forum for the interaction of participating members of the user group.
In another example, a method of collaborating health goals between members of a user group is provided. The method may comprise appointing a first member of a user group to be a commissioner of a health goal competition and assigning at least one criterion for winning the health goal competition. The method may also comprise inviting one or more additional members of the user group to participate in the health goal competition and enrolling one or more additional members of the user group as participating members in the health goal competition. The method may further comprise tracking the progression based on the at least one criterion of the participating members and determining at least one winner of the health goal competition.
In addition, the method may comprise creating a plurality of teams, which compete in the health goal competition, and appointing at least one team captain to each of the plurality of teams. Appointing of the team captains may be performed by the commissioner. Inviting one or more additional members of the user group may comprise inviting one or more additional members of the user group to join one of the plurality of teams. Enrolling the one or more additional members of the user group as participating members may further comprise assigning the participating members to one team of the plurality of teams. Determining at least one winner of the health goal competition may comprise determining which of the plurality of teams wins the health goal competition. The method may further comprise notifying participating members of the progression of each of the participating members. The method may comprise notifying the members of each team of the progression of each team of the plurality of teams. The method may comprise providing a web-based forum for the interaction of participating members.
Furthermore, the method may comprise inviting one or more additional members of the user group by providing at least one hyperlink to the one or more additional members of the user group, and the at least one hyperlink directs the one or more additional members to a website, which provides instructions for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition. Inviting the one or more additional members may be initiated by one or more participating members. Each team captain of each of the teams may invite one or more additional members of the user group to join the team associated with each team captain. The one or more additional members may be assigned to the team associated with the inviting team captain.
One additional example of a method of collaborating health goals between members of a user group may comprise assigning at least one criterion for winning a health goal competition by at least one member of a user group, who is the commissioner of the health goal competition. The health goal competition may be between a plurality of teams composed of members of the user group. The method may comprise inviting one or more additional members of the user group to participate as a member of at least one of the plurality of teams and enrolling the one or more additional members of the user group as a participating member of the at least one of the plurality of teams in the health goal competition. The method may comprise tracking progression based on the at least one criterion of the participating members of the user group and determining at least one winning team of the health goal competition.
The health goal competition may comprise a series of challenges for the participating members and the at least one winning team may be determined by the total challenges completed by the participating members. Furthermore, inviting one or more additional members of the user group may be initiated by at least one of the team captains of the plurality of teams. Inviting one or more additional members of the user group may be initiated by one or more participating members of the plurality of teams. The method may further comprise inviting one or more additional members of the user group by providing at least one hyperlink to the one or more additional members of the user group. The at least one hyperlink directs the one or more additional members to a website, which may provide instructions for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition.
This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features. Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

DRAWINGS

The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals between users.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals between users.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals between users and teams of users.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a method for collaborating health goals between users and teams of users.

FIG. 5 is an illustration of an invitation to participate in a health goal competition

FIG. 6 is an illustration of a system that may be employed to execute a method for collaborating health goals between users.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a system that may be employed to execute a method for collaborating health goals between users.

Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Users often set health goals such as weight loss targets, resolutions to eat more fruits and vegetables, or quitting smoking but lose motivation to meet these important goals. Support from other users with similar goals can be helpful but finding such support and organizing these users can be difficult. Oftentimes, users competing to meet health goals will have higher rates of success; however, moderating a competition and keeping track of user progress over the course of a competition are obstacles.
Accordingly, methods for collaborating health goals between users are provided. These methods may be administered through computing systems and networks, which can provide better accessibility to many users who may be geographically separate. Generally, a user in a user group who wishes to initiate a health goal competition will act as the commissioner of the competition. A health goal competition may be between a plurality of individual users or it may be between teams of users or both. The parameters of the health goal competition may be determined by the commissioner, who may decide if the competition is between teams or individuals or both. The commissioner may also select what the criteria or criterion for the competition will be, for example, the commissioner may choose a weight loss competition, a healthy eating competition, an activity level competition, a physiological parameter competition, or a smoking cessation competition, etc. or any combination of competitions.
Once the parameters of the competition are assigned, the commissioner may invite users to join the competition. The commissioner may choose to invite or assign users to be team leaders who, in turn, invite users to join the competition or their respective teams. Users who are already in the competition may invite additional users to participate. Invitations may be extended via email, instant messaging, social networking, or through other forms of internet-based communication. For example, a user may have a blog on which he or she posts an invitation hyperlink, which routes users to an enrollment website. The users may enroll in the competition through a user computer, which may be a personal computer, smartphone, PDA, laptop, tablet computer, gaming system, or other networked computing device. Users may enroll in a competition in person or over telephone and the enrollment information may be transferred to a computer that is in communication with a server that administers the competition. In a team-based competition, users may enroll and select their team or they may be automatically assigned to a team. Users may be automatically assigned to the team which invited them or they may be randomly assigned to teams to provide teams with even distribution of users.
Once the users and/or teams are enrolled, the health goal competition may begin. Each user may be requested to provide their initial health information, such as starting weight. Then the users may update their weight over the course of the competition. Similarly, in other competitions, users may be responsible for periodically updating their own progress. Points or awards may be given for consistent updating to encourage users to report their progress. Examples of metrics may include, minutes of exercise in a day, a food diary/blog, how many cigarettes per day, etc. In another example, updating may be done by a networked device that reports updates automatically, such as an internet-enabled scale that automatically logs a user's weight. Other automatic monitoring may include networked fitness center equipment such as cardio equipment that logs in the number of minutes and intensity level of a user's workout. Another example of automatic tracking might include a user worn monitoring device that detects if a user has been smoking. Each user's progression towards meeting the health goal may be tracked on a central server or other computing device. In another example, the commissioner may host the tracking on a personal computer. In the team-based competition, the aggregated progression of all team members may also be tracked. For example, total weight loss might be counted. To spur competition, the progression of other competing users and teams may be available to the users. Internet-based forums may be provided for users to interact to provide encouragement.
A health goal competition may include multiple challenges and criteria. For example, a health competition may include a check-up challenge in which users are awarded points for having routine screening and check-ups completed. The same health competition may also include a healthy eating challenge in which users are awarded points for dietary improvements. The metrics for the progress of users or teams of users may be assigned by the commissioner or may be assigned by a sponsoring organization.
At the end of the competition, which may be determined by the commissioner, the winner and/or winning team may be determined. For example, the team which had the most users who smoked the least over the competition period or the team which lost the greatest average percentage of weight may be deemed the winning team. To provide additional motivation, a prize may be awarded to the individual winner or winning team. For example, each user joining may “buy-in” and pay a sum of cash with the winner taking the pot. In another example, a company sponsoring the competition for workers may supply a prize for the winning team, such as a celebratory dinner or vacation.
For example, in FIG. 1 a method 100 for collaborating the health goals between two or more users is illustrated as a flowchart. In step 101, a commissioner, who may or may not be a participant in the competition, assigns at least one goal for a health goal competition. The commissioner may be a company or other group sponsoring the competition. For example, the goal might be a weight loss goal. In step 102, users are invited to participate in the health goal competition. Invitations may be sent as emails or instant messages or through social network programs as hyperlinks for users to navigate to in order to enroll. Invitations may be simply posted as hyperlinks on a website. In step 103, the users enroll to participate in the health goal competition. The progress or progression of the participating users towards the at least one health goal is tracked in step 104. As described above, this progression may be tracked by the user inputting his or her progress into a form provided on a website administered by a central server. The progression may be tracked automatically by any number of networked devices. In step 105, the winner of the health goal competition is determined, for example, as according to who met or exceeded the goal originally assigned. In order to spur competition between participating users, the users and/or the commissioner may be notified of the progression of the users during the competition at step 106.
FIG. 2 illustrates an additional example of a method 200 for collaborating health goals between users. In step 201, a first member of a user group is appointed commissioner of a health goal competition. The appointment may occur in any number of ways: organization may appoint the commissioner, the user group may vote to appoint the commissioner, or the first member may volunteer to appoint him/herself to be the commissioner. Next, the commissioner may assign at least one criterion for winning the health goal competition at step 202. Alternately or in conjunction, an organization sponsoring the health goal competition may assign the criterion or may ask the commissioner to assign that criterion. The user group involved in the competition may have input towards what the criterion or criteria for winning the health goal competition may be. In step 203, one or more additional members of the user group may be invited to participate in the health goal competition.
Next, step 204 includes enrolling the one or more additional members of the user group as participating members in the health goal competition. Enrollment may include inputting the user's physical parameters through a user computing device or user computer into a form of a website administered by a server. A user computing device may be a personal computer, laptop, gaming system, tablet computer, smartphone, PDA, etc. The user computer may be a terminal provided by a sponsoring organization. Enrollment may include the purchase, rental, or request for tracking equipment. Enrollment may also include submitting a doctor's authorization that the user is healthy enough to participate in the challenge. The enrollment step may include one or more waivers or agreements.
Continuing in FIG. 2, step 205 includes tracking the progress based on the at least one criterion of the participating members. Participating members may log-on to a website administered by a server to input the progression towards the health goal. Alternately, tracking devices such as pedometers, scales, PDAs, smartphones, etc. may provide progress data that can be tracked. For example, a user may wear a pedometer that he or she may connect with a computer periodically to upload the number of miles walked or run over a period of time. Ultimately, a winner of the health goal competition may be determined at step 206. There may be more than one winner, for example, if different categories are assigned. For example, in a fitness challenge, there may be a winner for the greatest overall improvement and another winner for the highest fitness level at the conclusion of the competition. Moreover, a periodic winner in the competition may be determined. For example, in a weight loss competition, a winner may be determined in the first week for the most weight lost and the competition may continue beyond that first week.
Additionally, FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a method 300 for collaborating health goals between users using a team-based approach. In step 301, a first member of a user group is appointed the commissioner of a health goal competition. The commissioner may have control over the entire health goal competition or serve as an administrator with input from other participants or a governing body. The commissioner may assign at least one criterion for winning the health goal competition at step 302. At step 303, the commissioner may create a plurality of teams to compete in the health goal competition. For example, the commissioner may decide on a competition between four groups of five members each, etc. At step 304, a team captain is appointed to each of the plurality of teams. The team captain may be the primary liaison between the participating members and the commissioner. The team captain may be responsible for filling his/her roster with participating members through invitations. The team captains may serve as coaches and motivators to their teams as the competition progresses.
Next, one or more additional members are invited to participate in the health goal competition to join one of the plurality of teams in step 305. As described above, the invitations may be extended by the commissioner, the sponsoring organization, the team captains, or participating members and may be in the form of a communicated hyperlink to an enrollment website administered by a server. The one or more additional members enroll as participating members and also are assigned as participating members to one team of the plurality of teams in step 306. The assignment of enrolled members to a team may be automatic based on which team extended the invitation to the enrolled member or the member may be allowed to choose which team to join.
In step 307, the progress of the participating members is tracked based on the at least one criterion. The progression of the team may be determined based upon the member progress either by aggregation, averaging, or other calculation methods. Through the course of the competition, the progression of the individuals and the team may be available to the team leaders and/or to the participants. The individuals may choose to share or not share their individual progress. The team progress displayed to other competing teams may or may not include individual rankings. In one example, all participating members are able to see the team rankings but only members of a team are able to see the progression of their team members. Furthermore, an internet forum may be provided, such as through a server associated with the competition, for the participating members to offer encouragement, motivation, tips, etc.
In step 308, the winning team is determined from the plurality of teams in the health goal competition. In addition, individual winners may be determined. Furthermore, multiple winners may be determined for a multi-challenge health goal competition. In addition, winning teams may be determined at intermediate points in the competition. For example, between four teams competing in a weight-loss competition, the team with the most total weight lost at the half-way point may be awarded a prize. Then at the conclusion of the weight-loss competition, the team with the most total weight lost in the end may be awarded a grand prize.
FIG. 4 illustrates another example of a method 400 for collaborating health goals between users in a team-based competition. In step 401, at least one criterion for winning a health goal competition between a plurality of teams is assigned. There may be a plurality of criteria for winning the health goal competition. For example, a number of fitness challenges may be assigned: total number of sit-ups per minute, timed mile, total number of push-ups, total number of sit-ups, etc. Points may be awarded for the completion of each challenge. Each user may be asked to do these challenges each week. The health goal competition may be a challenge to improve over-all health with a weight-loss challenge, a fitness challenge, a doctor check-up challenge, and a healthy eating challenge wherein points are awarded for the completion of each challenge.
In step 402, at least one team captain may be appointed to each of the plurality of teams. The team captains may be appointed by the commissioner, may be voted upon by the participants, and/or may be appointed by a sponsor. Next, one or more members of the user group may be invited to participate as a member of one of the plurality of teams in step 403. The one or more members may be invited by the team captain to join his or her team. The one or more members may be invited by the commissioner, by a sponsoring organization, and/or by a member who is already enrolled to participate.
In step 404, the one or more additional members of the user group is enrolled as a participating member of one of the plurality of teams. The one or more additional members may be assigned to the team that originally extended the invitation, either through a team captain or a member of the team. The one or more additional members may be randomly assigned to a team. The one or more additional members may be assigned to a team by the commissioner. In addition, through the course of the competition, there may be challenges that enable teams to swap or trade members to gain an advantage. There may be challenges that result in the elimination of members and the eliminated members are enrolled in a secondary competition in order to rejoin the primary competition.
In step 405, the progression of the participating members of each group is tracked and may additionally be reported to the other members or the team captains of the group. In addition, the progression of each team may be available to the participating members such as through a rankings display on a website. In step 406, at least one winning team is determined. As described above, there may be a plurality of challenges in the health goal competition and as such, there may be more than one winning team over the course of the competition. Furthermore, individual winners may be determined from the pool of participating members, such as a Most Valuable Player. In addition, a losing team or losing member may be determined. For example, the team that progresses the least may be required to wash the cars for the team that is determined to be the winner. Motivation for meeting the collaborative user goals may be accomplished by any number of means.
In FIG. 5, one example of an invitation to participate in the health goal competition is illustrated. The invitation may be an email 500 providing a hyperlink 501,502 to Jane Doe to join the “Fitness Challenge.” Jane Doe may use the hyperlink to navigate to the enrollment page to join the Fitness Challenge. Jane Doe may also forward the hyperlink to other users to invite them to join the Fitness Challenge. The hyperlink and enrollment page maybe administered by a central server or by the commissioner of the health goal competition. The hyperlink may be copied and pasted into other forms of internet communication, such as instant messages, social networking feeds, blogs, etc.
One example of a system for administering the method of collaborating health goals is illustrated in FIG. 6. Generally one or more servers 602 may include exemplary server components comprise a processing unit, internal system memory, and a suitable system bus for coupling various system components, including the central data store, with the server. The system bus might be any of several types of bus structures, including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus, using any of a variety of bus architectures.
The server 602 typically includes therein, or has access to, a variety of computer-storage media. Computer-storage media can be any available media that might be accessed by the server 101 and may be removable or non-removable media. Computer storage media may comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVDs) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage, or other magnetic storage device, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which may be accessed by the server 602. Combinations of any of the above also may be included within the scope of computer-storage media. Computer storage media provide storage of computer-executable instructions, data structures, and program modules, and other data for the server.
The server 602 is linked to a plurality of user computers 603-606 via a network 601. The user computers 603-606 might be personal computers, servers, routers, network PCs, peer devices, other common network nodes, or the like and might comprise some or all of the elements described above in relation to the server 602. The devices can be personal digital assistants or other like devices.
Exemplary computer networks 601 comprise local area networks (LANs) and/or wide area networks (WANs). Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise-wide computer networks, intranets, and the Internet. When utilized in a WAN networking environment, the server 602 might comprise a modem or other means for establishing communications over the WAN, such as the Internet. In a networked environment, program modules or portions thereof might be stored in association with the server 602 or any of the user computers 603-606. For example, various application programs may reside on the memory associated with any one or more of the authenticated terminal. It will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers (e.g., server 602 and authenticated terminals) might be utilized.
In operation, an organization or a commissioner might enter commands and information into the server 602 or convey the commands and information to the server 602 via one or more of the user computers 603-606 through input devices, such as a keyboard, a pointing device (commonly referred to as a mouse), a trackball, or a touch pad. Other input devices comprise microphones, satellite dishes, scanners, or the like. In addition to a monitor, the control server 602 and/or authenticated terminals might comprise other peripheral output devices, such as speakers and a printer.
Although many other internal components of the server 602 and the user computers are not shown, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that such components and their interconnection are well known.
Referring to FIG. 7, a system 700 for performing the method of collaborating health goals is illustrated. Component 701 may provide assignment of at least one health goal for the health goal competition. Item 702 may provide invitation of one or more users to participate in the health goal competition. Enrollment of the one or more users to participate may be provided by component 703. Progression of the participating users towards the at least one health goal may be tracked 704. At least one winner of the health goal competition may be determined 705.
The system and methods described may be operational with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well-known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that might be suitable for use with the present invention include personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above-mentioned systems or devices, and the like.
The systems and methods might be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Exemplary program modules comprise routines, programs, objects, components, and data structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The present invention might be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remove processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules might be located in association with local and/or remove computer storage media (e.g. memory storage devices).
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention. Individual elements or features of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and may be used in a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described.

Claims

1. Computer-storage media having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, when executed, perform a method of collaborating health goals between two or more users, the method comprising:

assigning at least one health goal for a health goal competition by a commissioner;

inviting one or more users to participate in the health goal competition;

enrolling the one or more users to participate in the health goal competition;

tracking a progression of the one or more participating users towards the at least one health goal; and

determining at least one winner of the one or participating users of the health goal competition.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein inviting the one or more users comprises:

sending a hyperlink to the one or more users, wherein the hyperlink directs the one or more users to a website and the website provides instructions to the one or more users for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising notifying the one or more users and the at least one commissioner of the progression of the one or more users towards the at least one health goal.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the health goal competition comprises a weight-loss challenge.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the health goal competition comprises a series of challenges and points are assigned for the completion of each challenge such that accrual of points is at least one factor in determining the at least one winner of the health goal competition.

6. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising providing an internet-based forum for the interaction of participating members of the user group.

7. A method of collaborating health goals between members of a user group, the method comprising:

appointing a first member of a user group to be a commissioner of a health goal competition;

assigning at least one criterion for winning the health goal competition;

inviting one or more additional members of the user group to participate in the health goal competition;

enrolling one or more additional members of the user group as participating members in the health goal competition;

tracking the progression based on the at least one criterion of the participating members; and

determining at least one winner of the health goal competition.

8. The method of claim 7, the method further comprising:

creating a plurality of teams, wherein the plurality of teams compete in the health goal competition;

appointing at least one team captain to each of the plurality of teams, wherein the team captains are appointed by the commissioner;

inviting one or more additional members of the user group further comprises inviting one or more additional members of the user group to join one of the plurality of teams;

enrolling the one or more additional members of the user group as participating members further comprises assigning the participating members to one team of the plurality of teams; and

determining at least one winner of the health goal competition comprises determining which of the plurality of teams wins the health goal competition.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein determining at least lease one winner further comprises determining at least one individual winner from all of the participating members who wins the health goal competition.

10. The method of claim 7, the method further comprising notifying participating members of the progression of each of the participating members.

11. The method of claim 8, the method further comprising notifying the members of each team of the progression of each team of the plurality of teams.

12. The method of claim 7, the method further comprising providing a web-based forum for the interaction of participating members.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein inviting one or more additional members of the user group further comprises inviting one or more additional members of the user group by providing at least one hyperlink to the one or more additional members of the user group and the at least one hyperlink directs the one or more additional members to a website and the website provides instructions for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition

14. The method of claim 8, wherein inviting one or more additional members of the user group is initiated by one or more participating members.

15. The method of claim 8, wherein each team captain of each of the plurality of teams invites one or more additional members of the user group to join the team associated with each team captain and assigning the one or more additional members to the team associated with the inviting team captain.

16. A method of collaborating health goals between members of a user group, the method comprising:

assigning at least one criterion for winning a health goal competition by at least one member of a user group, wherein the at least one member of a user group is the commissioner of the health goal competition and the health goal competition is between a plurality of teams composed of members of the user group;

appointing at least one team captain to each of the plurality of teams;

inviting one or more additional members of the user group to participate as a member of at least one of the plurality of teams;

enrolling the one or more additional members of the user group as a participating member of the at least one of the plurality of teams in the health goal competition;

tracking a progression based on the at least one criterion of the participating members of the user group; and

determining at least one winning team of the health goal competition.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the health goal competition comprises a series of challenges for the participating members and the at least one winning team is determined by the total challenges completed by the participating members.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein inviting one or more additional members of the user group is initiated by at least one of the team captains of the plurality of teams.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein inviting one or more additional members of the user group is initiated by one or more participating members of the plurality of teams.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein inviting one or more additional members of the user group further comprises inviting one or more additional members of the user group by providing at least one hyperlink to the one or more additional members of the user group and the at least one hyperlink directs the one or more additional members to a website and the website provides instructions for enrolling to participate in the health goal competition.