The Cleveland Medical Hackathon will return to downtown Cleveland this fall with new features and an important new connection. The 2nd annual hackathon will be held in conjunction with Cleveland Clinic’s Medical Innovation Summit, the healthcare industry’s premiere innovation conference.
In 2015, some of the brightest minds in medicine and technology collaborated in round-the-clock efforts to use technology to solve big challenges in healthcare. About $5,000 in prize money was awarded to winning teams.
Hackathon participants, speakers and sponsors will be able to interact with the summit, which showcases some of the most advanced treatments and technologies in medicine.
The Hackathon will unfold October 22 and 23 at the Global Center for Health Innovation in downtown Cleveland. The 2016 Medical Innovation Summit begins at the same location October 24. Opportunities for synergy between the two conferences are now being planned.
“We’ve been very careful to retain much of what made the first hackathon so successful, but have added elements to make it even more engaging,” said James Krouse, director of marketing and communications for hackathon co-founder Nesco Resource, a national recruiting firm. “Coordinating with the Medical Innovation Summit is just one exciting way that we are building on last year’s momentum and we’ll announce more new developments soon.”
Hackathons—marathon brainstorming sessions that typically include computer coding, or hacking—are popular in startup culture as a means of accelerating products and ideas. Last year, Cleveland’s med-tech community began to apply that strategy to medical innovation.
The inaugural Cleveland Medical Hackathon attracted more than 200 men and women from across the country. Some of the brightest minds in medicine and technology collaborated in round-the-clock efforts to use technology to solve big challenges in healthcare. About $5,000 in prize money was awarded to winning teams.
This year’s agenda centers on healthcare transformation in areas like patient engagement, treatment outcomes, security and integrity, as well as community health.
Lead partners behind the Cleveland Medical Hackathon include Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, The MetroHealth System, Case Western Reserve University, HIMSS and BioEnterprise.
The Hackathon will take place in the HIMSS Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art meeting and technology space on the top floor of the global center, adjacent to the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland.
The Cleveland Medical Hackathon is free to attend and to participate in, but an application is necessary to ensure a productive mix of expertise and adequate space. Individuals and teams may apply now at www.clevelandmedicalhackathon.com.
“Last year we saw a huge amount of interest and enthusiasm for the event and we want to build on that this year,” said Dr. William Morris, the Associate Chief Information Officer at Cleveland Clinic and a co-founder of the hackathon. “Bringing together clinicians, technology innovators, and patient advocates in one room for one weekend, is a great way to spark ideas and innovation.”
Potential hackathon participants are encouraged to join Health Data Matters’ Public Health Innovation Meetup to begin identifying and using data sets that could fuel Hackathon applications.
“Community health and wellness track participants captured two of three top prizes last year,” notes Amy Sheon, executive director of the Urban Health Initiative at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “Perhaps because there is so much low-hanging fruit in this area.”
How the Hackathon went in 2015
The Cleveland Medical Hackathon (#clemedhack) presented by Nesco Resource climaxed Sunday, September 27th 2015 with three winners chosen out of 21 competing teams. Doctors, nurses, patient advocates, researchers, scientists, programmers, entrepreneurs, engineers, and developers worked for over 24 hours on projects leveraging technology to solve big challenges in the world of medicine, health and wellness. More than 225 participants joined with mentors from medical, law, tech and public health fields to identify problems, pitch ideas, share expertise, and ultimately form teams to find solutions within a 24-hour time period.
The event was held at the Global Center for Health Innovation in downtown Cleveland and was developed as a partnership between Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, The MetroHealth System, BioEnterprise, Nesco Resource, FlashStarts and Case Western Reserve University.
