mithackmed

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On May 12th, over 400 medical technology innovators came together at MIT’s fourth annual Grand Hack, the flagship event of MIT Hacking Medicine. It’s the world’s largest healthcare hackathon, with participants from across the country and around the globe.

The event brings together people with backgrounds in medicine, technology, and business to find solutions to today’s most pressing health issues.

Participant and entrepreneur Michael Barros, who’s pursuing an MBA at Boston University, wasn’t sure what kind of project he would work on when he came.

“I wasn’t planning on pitching anything,” said Barros. “I was going to help people fix something.”

But in the pitching session, participants were told to offer problems rather than solutions. Barros may have lacked a solution, but his problem grabbed the attention of a room packed with innovators.

In the last 10 years, heroin abuse has doubled among Americans aged 18 to 25. Addicts seeking treatment face long wait times, and Barros knows the long wait can mean the difference between life and death.

In 2010, Barros was a student at Saint Anselm College when he and a roommate began experimenting with heroin. As their addictions spiraled out of control, they left school and found themselves homeless. They waited for months without help. Feeling hopeless, Barros’s roommate committed suicide.

“I’m only here because I got help when I needed it,” said Barros.

[mithackmed]

We’re back from Singapore!

Soaring skyscrapers, architectural wonders, spotless streets and sidewalks, it would not come as a surprise to many that Singapore (SG) is a relatively young country. Having attained independence in 1965, Singaporeans quickly set about building a country in a way to distinguish themselves from the much larger countries around them. For a population as diverse as Singaporeans, this was no mean feat. In a land mass 1/4 the size of Rhode Island, the 6 million citizens represent a diverse ethnic and religious spectrum. There are Malays, Chinese, Indians, Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. What then ties these people together? A strong sense of national pride, or rather in the principles that have made this small island a thriving tourist destination and a financial hub of the world.

My first conversation in SG was with my taxi driver from the airport. From this, it became clear that the driving force of the country was the populations’ strong work ethic. He explained that few welfare programs exist, as the pervasive thought is that nobody should expect a handout if they do not contribute to society in the form of work. The government also employs strict rules it expects everyone to abide by, and reinforces this through the strictest punishment: corporal punishment in the form of caning is often handed out to perpetrators of vandalism. The right to protest is nonexistent, and the country has been ruled by the same party for the last 60 years, and has had 3 rulers: 2 of which are father and son.

National military service is required of all men. Rights are often curtailed in the interest of public good. For example, Singaporeans must pay a SGD 100 entry fee to casinos on the island, although foreigners are exempt from this. The logic behind this and other similar rules, are that they are all in the greater good of the country and its citizens. Other laws ensure preferential treatment of citizens: A 40% property purchase tax is levied on foreigners but not citizens, in an attempt to keep real estate prices low. As a result, 85% of Singaporeans own their home. 

The population seems content with this arrangement, by and large. While sectarian tensions often simmer, this quasi-nanny state has ensured that SG is a safe (crime is virtually nonexistent), clean, and friendly place to live. That it has managed to do this without citizens demanding greater welfare programs is quite remarkable. Healthcare is a prime example of this.

The government plays a leading role in the advocacy for sustained population health. Through heavy alcohol and tobacco taxation, and other public health campaigns and initiatives, this policy is rooted in the belief that prevention provides the cheapest and most effective way of keeping people healthy (while an entrée at a restaurant can be as cheap as $2, the local beer sells for $5-$10). 

70-80% of healthcare is provided by the public sector. Citizens are covered by a single universal basic coverage, although it is not free. Instead, citizens are mandated to place a certain percentage of monthly income into a Central Provident Fund (CPF) account, which is roughly equivalent to social security in the US, but also includes enrollment in the healthcare program, called MediSave. Medisave essentially acts as a savings account for each individual/family. Medisave provides subsidized healthcare to citizens, and the out of pocket expense comes out of the Medisave account. In this way, unnecessary tests, hospitalizations, and medical expenses are curtailed, while still remaining affordable. Medisave, however, can only be used in the public health system. While public hospitals and clinics provide efficient, high quality of care, certain things can be lacking. The lack of a primary care provider or family doctor is an example of this. Also, the lack of risk (and thus, resource) pooling of Medisave accounts, open the door for the possibility of an individual incurring huge expenses for an unforeseen chronic medical condition. As a result, citizens often purchase additional insurance such as catastrophic/accident or pre-cancer insurance riders.

This is not to say that the poor or needy go without healthcare if they are unable to pay. Other government programs include ElderShield (for the elderly but only up to 85), MediFund (for the poor), and Medishield (which helps offset catastrophic accident medical bills). In this respect, it is not unlike the health systems of the west. However, the admirable work ethic that pervades through the population seems to avoid people trying to take advantage of this system and allow it to be viable.

While lacking in some respects, this structure has allowed SG to run one of the most efficient health care systems in the world, with ~4% of GDP spent on health care, compared with the US’ 17%.

On February 10, 2017, 6p.m., 80 clinicians, developers, entrepreneurs, and engineers watched the kickoff, listened to an esteemed panel, including Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, who helped us understand the importance of social robotics. In particular, the main takeaway is to remember that technology needs to complement the human user, not replace or make us obsolete.

31 pain points later, 12 teams formed. Teams chose to tackle problems ranging from fall prevention to medical compliance to physical therapy, each team incorporating a Loomo Segway into their solution. Some teams hacked 48-hours straight from the first day to the last to get their prototypes ready for final presentations!

Because everyone used a robot, each team pitched the standard 3-min presentation but also had 2 min to demo their in front of the audience. Judges had an extremely difficult time deliberating the top 3, and here were the winning teams:

Bot-ler: using Loomo’s mechanical advantage to handle challenges that involve manpower in nursing homes, including pushing wheelchairs and pulling heavy items.

D.O.R.I.: inspired by the Finding Nemo character, D.O.R.I. identifies patient with facial recognition and tracks mental decline by conversing and playing memory games in order to detect and treat Alzheimer’s early on.

Nurse on Wheels: extending the nurse’s hands, ears, and eyes into the patient’s home to monitor chronic patients with hypertension, which is clinically known to give rise to many other long-term health complications.

We’re proud of all the teams for using a full-fledged robot into their healthcare hacks and coming up with real solutions specific and generalizable to the needs of elderly care in Singapore. It was a great opportunity for the MIT HackMed team to learn about Singapore and some of its healthcare challenges! Can’t wait to see the post-hack follow-up for teams in a few months!

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Join us at Hawkathon 2017, UMass Lowell's first Digital Health Hawkathon and its second student-run 24-hour hacking event. Hawkathon 2017 is organized by UMass Lowell in partnership with Massachusetts eHealth Initiative and MIT Hacking Medicine. Participants can build novel medical devices, networks for better first responder efficiency, programs for improved diagnostic accuracy, and so much more.

Come experience Hawkathon firsthand from March 3rd-4th, 2017 in O’Leary Library on UMass Lowell’s South Campus. You can find out more information and apply at www.hawkathon.org.

We hope to see you there!

[mithackmed]

We’re Heading to Singapore: MIT Hacking Medicine Robotics (FEB 12-14, 2017) !

Pioneering social robotics for eldercare

February 10th @ 5:30PM through February 12th @ 3PM

Hosted at SGInnovate @ 32 Carpenter St.

Calling developers, clinicians, engineers, designers, researchers and business managers to join MIT Hacking Medicine for the first hackathon in Asia focused on social robotics for eldercare.

On February 10 - 12, 2017, SGInnovate will host a weekend of hacking, brainstorming and building innovative solutions with engineers, clinicians, designers, developers, researchers and business people.

The MIT Hacking Medicine team will lead participants to build software and hardware applications on the Segway Robotplatform to improve the lives of the elderly. During the hack, you’ll be able to create robot assistants capable of understanding and engaging with elderly and patients with conditions such as Alzheimer's and others.

The Segway Robot was awarded Best Robot Butler at the Consumer Electronics Show and praised as “one of the most appealing robot concepts in the world” by prestigious tech media including Engadget. At the hackathon, you will have the opportunity to try out the Alpha Developer Edition robot, which is currently available to a very selective number of developer partners around the world.

Sound exciting? Sign up to participate!

Developers, Clinicians, and Entrepreneurs are strongly encouraged to apply soon!

The objective of the hackathon is to create and grow a community of innovators around personal robotics for healthcare, mental healthcare and eldercare applications. If you belong to one of the following categories and have a passion for creating impactful solutions for patients and the elderly, then this hackathon is for you.

Healthcare providers: doctors, nurses, allied healthcare providers, etc. – You work with patients on a daily basis and know what’s needed most.

Developers: hardware and software engineers (knowledge and experiences of Android development preferred) – You can improve the lives of patients and the elderly by developing solutions together with clinicians and business managers.

Businesswomen and businessmen – You know what’s needed for a new startup to succeed.

Not a developer? Don’t fret. Each team at the hackathon must be composed of passionate people from the above-mentioned three categories. Teams will form during the hackathon event.

You will be able to use advances in AI, robotics and gaming to address important issues in healthcare, not at an incremental level, but at a significant impact level. You will use these advances to address significant healthcare problems both in Singapore and the world. These may include teaching autistic children, monitoring and interacting with the elderly in group settings or as a sole companion, evaluating patient’s activities.

The winning teams will get the opportunity to go on stage at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech Asia - the conference on the emerging technologies that matter - and highlight the most innovative solutions developed during the hackathon.

On top of contributing towards Singapore’s Smart Nation building efforts, follow on funding for the winning team are up for grabs, as well as access to prototyping facilities labs and the Segway Robot Developer Edition platform available for the winning top three teams.

Robotic platform & tools available at the Hackathon Segway Robot will provide 5 alpha robots for the Hackathon teams to use during the Hackathon with full support during the event. Google Cloud apps will also be available to developers.

Participating Developers, please note:

There will be a training session on January 17, 2017 from 9AM-1PM with the Segway Robotics and MIT Hacking Medicine teams @ SGInnovate.

This event is strongly recommended for all participating developers. You will get a chance to get familiar with the Segway Robot development package and ask questions to the teams behind the event so that, come February 10, you are ready to hack! Food will be provided at this event.

Find out more about the Hackathon at:

Website: http://hackingmedicine.mit.edu/hacking-robotics-singapore 

FAQ: http://hackingmedicine.mit.edu/hacking-robotics-singapore/faq/ 

Email: hacking.med@sginnovate.com

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Les dejamos este #TimeLapse de la Hackathon del fin de semana pasada. Hacemos la previa para el video oficial #HackaloTChile con estas más de 24 horas resumidas en 65 segundos.

[mithackmed]

La profesora Judy Wang del MIT nos presenta su visión de HackaloT, evento que organizó la Facultad de Ingeniería de la Universidad del Desarrollo el pasado 10 y 11 de Diciembre. Experiencias tecnológicas de alto impacto son propias del trabajo en innovación y emprendimiento que fomenta la Facultad de Ingeniería de la UDD. Te interesa conocer más de lo que hacemos y postular a nuestras carreras?. Visita http://ingenieria.udd.cl/

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Friends, we present the video that summarizes the 24 hrs of creation, innovation and entrepreneurship in hackalot organized by the INGENIERIAUDD Universidad Del Desarrollo. We invite you to share this great experience! (TRANSLATED)

[mithackmed]

MIT Hacking Medicine goes to Chile

Hacking Medicine Institute Executive Director Judy Wang represented MIT Hacking Medicine at HackaIoT Chile 2016 in Concepción, Chile last month. She reflects on her experience below.

This December I had the opportunity to represent Hacking Medicine at the HackaIoT Health hack in Concepción, Chile. I had never been to Chile before and was eager to learn more about academic support of innovation and entrepreneurship there, and hear more about the health care challenges of one of South America’s most stable and prosperous countries.

The second largest city in Chile, Concepción is 500 km (approx. 300 miles) from Santiago and a university town. I immediately felt a kinship with the co-lead team of Pablo Gonzalez Brevis, a Lecturer at the Concepción campus of Universidad del Desarollo (UDD), Ramiro Bopp, Admissions Coordinator for UDD Concepción, and Tomas Pacheco, a recent UDD Engineering grad. This team had come together last year to plan a successful hackathon focused on connected technologies, and wanted to focus on health technologies this year.

Their hackathon was structured similarly to a typical MIT Hacking Medicine hack: pre-hack activities on a Friday night, including workshops focused on ideation and pitching; participant hacking on Saturday and Sunday; and presentations on Sunday afternoon. One interesting idea they had was to have every team submit a 90 second video pitch for judging on Sunday afternoon. Judges would then use these video pitches to narrow the field to approximately 10 finalist teams that would have the opportunity to pitch their hacks in front of their peers.

There was no overall theme for HackaIoT Health, unlike a typical MIT Hacking Medicine hack. However, I was struck by how similar the healthcare challenges in Chile were to those we experience in the United States. One of the content experts and judges, a pediatric specialist in one of Chile’s biggest hospitals, described his pain points around preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), and also encouraged the participants to think outside the box when it came to medical applications for wearable technology. Another judge was a first responder for Chile’s Fire Rescue service, and described one of his biggest challenges—real-time communication between all first responders during a crisis. He related his experience of being on the front lines during emergencies such as the 2010 earthquake in Concepción, in which the lack of real-time information available made it incredibly difficult to coordinate evacuation of victims and recording of vital information between first responders.

At the end of the day, the three winners of the hackathon all shared that same special sauce, that magic “je ne sais quoi” that we look for in our winning hack teams. Third prize went to a team that had all come together at the hack to create an Arduino-powered smart walking stick for the blind, adding a feature that would enable the user to sense overhead obstacles. This team also won the Fire Rescue’s special prize for creating the foundation of a platform that would leverage real-time data capture to better allocate first responder resources across a city. Second prize went to Salud Intra Hospitalaria, which leveraged robotics technologies to clean a hospital’s air ducts and vents, eliminating a source of hospital infections. First prize went to Castinela, which leveraged predictive analytics and wearables to monitor the elderly based on routine activities. All the teams pledged to stay together and continue working on their prototypes to prepare for their mentoring sessions with UDD Ventures.

On my last day in Chile, I was able to tour the UDD Santiago innovation campus. 

The university has thrown a lot of energy and support behind making Santiago and Chile an innovation hub for South America, creating coworking spaces and programming to support innovation and entrepreneurship spaces. Many of the professors have already formed partnerships with top universities in the US like UC Berkeley, Stanford and MIT to provide their students with additional opportunities to learn about innovation initiatives abroad. As I flew back to Boston, I couldn’t help but think that the possibilities for Latin American innovation and entrepreneurship are limitless. It’s thrilling to think that the HackaIoT team and MIT Hacking Medicine set the stage for what could become a burgeoning health tech industry in Chile.

[mithackmed]

2016 Spaulding Rehabilitation Hackathon

The Spaulding #Hackathon focuses on the development of creative and innovative solutions specifically for rehabilitation medicine challenges. This is your chance to join with other talented individuals to look for innovative ways to solve problems to benefit caregivers and patients. Presented by the Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding, this hackathon event brings clinicians, engineers, designers, programmers, and entrepreneurs together to tackle clinical and healthcare related problems specific to rehabilitative medicine.

Register: http://bit.ly/SpauldingRehabHack_2016

Date: October 14 -15, 2016

Venue: Microsoft Nerd CenterCambridge, MA

Prizes:

1st place prize

$2000 Cash

$5000 legal Services from Foley Hoag

$3500 iOS development from Beacon Growth

3 month Membership to Cambridge Innovation Center

2nd Place Prize

$1000 Cash

$1500 iOS Development

Best Design Award

$10,000 Design services from Mad*Pow

All winners eligible to participate in the Spaulding Accelerator Program.

Judges:

David Storto -     Partners Continuing CareAmy Cueva -       Mad*Pow

Ross Zafonte -    Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital & Harvard Medical School

Elaine Chen -      Harvard iLab

Michael Muehe - City of Cambridge

Dan Newman -    Partner, Cross Atlantic Ventures

Ralph Sheridan - Launchpad Venture Group

[mithackmed]

Come join us in Dublin, Ireland as we hack the “Patient Experience: From Bench to Bedside” as part of #BioAmbition16 at the DCU Alpha Campus from SEP 16--18, 2016. 

Registration and details: http://bit.ly/BioPharmaHackIE Agenda: 

Friday (SEP 16)

5.00pm Registration & food

6.00pm Welcome

6.15pm Overview

7.15pm Challenges outlined

7.30pm Pitch-off

8.15pm Team formation

8.30pm Making session

11.30pm Building closed

Saturday (SEP 17)

8.00am    Breakfast

9.00am    Making Session

10.00am  Workshops

12.30pm  Lunch

1.30pm    Mentor Session

2.00pm    Pitch coaching and presentation

5.30pm    Dinner

6.30pm    Making session

9.30pm    Pizza and drinks

10.00pm   Making session

11.30pm  Building closed

Sunday (SEP 18)

8.00am    Breakfast

10.00am  Making session

12.30pm Lunch

4.00pm   Walk-around

5.00pm   Demo-day Introduction

5.20pm   Final Pitches

6.30pm   Presentation

7.00pm   Winners announced

7.15pm   Wrap-up and reception

8.00pm   Finish

[mithackmed]

We’re Heading to Ireland: BioPharma Ambition 2016 (SEP 16-18)

As part of the BioPharma Ambition Conference happening in Dublin, Ireland, we’re heading to Ireland from September 16 –18 to hack “Improving the Patient Experience from Bench to Bedside” at DCU Alpha -- DCU’s standalone Innovation Campus in Glasnevin. 

Registration, Agenda and Details: http://bit.ly/BioPharmaHackIE .

The event will form part of the Dublin 2016 International BioPharma Ambition Conference, organised by the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA), BioPharmaChem Ireland (BPCI) and the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT).

The primary goal of the hackathon is to provide patients with better treatment outcomes as well as specific targets such as better drug logistics and waste management, more effective doctor-patient interaction and a better overall patient experience.

THEME:  Improving the Patient Experience from Bench to Bedside. 

GOAL: Better Outcomes for Patients.

Better drug logistics & waste management

More effective health practitioner - patient interaction

A better patient experience.

PRIZES:

1st €3,000

2nd €2,000

3rd €1,000 

The prize giving ceremony for our winning team will take place in the Mansion House Dublin on Wednesday 21st September at the BioPharma Ambition delegate dinner.

[mithackmed]

And the winners of #HackMedMiami are...FoodSense(3rd), Team 50 (2nd), and for our grand prize, Project Playground! pic.twitter.com/c6yfiLg2tr

— MIT Hacking Medicine (@mithackmed)

February 21, 2016

Solo en 2015 la financiación para nuevas empresas que intersectan la tecnología con la asistencia médica superó los 6,000 millones de dólares, casi el triple que los primeros tres años de la década combinados. La industria médica donde las máquinas de fax todavía eran la norma se ha visto recientemente sacudida por los sensores portátiles, las aplicaciones de los teléfonos inteligentes, los programas de medicina a distancia, entre muchas otras novedades. “Gran parte de la innovación que estamos viviendo se centra en darle poder a los consumidores, proveedores y contribuyentes para que tomen mejores y más informadas decisiones”, comentó a Univision Noticias Christian Seale, fundador del Startupbootcamp Miami.

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The Hacking Medicine initiative at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, for instance, has so far hosted almost 50 such events, teaming up engineers and data scientists with clinicians in 1- or 2-day events that are meant to quickly and iteratively work towards initial solutions to a host of health-care problems.

Among early results is an infant-resuscitation device for use in developing countries. The Ugandan paediatrician who first presented the problem has now taken the device into clinical trials in his country. The MIT initiative has helped to spark similar gatherings in places such as India and Uganda, led by the Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.