Healthcare Hackathon Highlights

On Friday, January 25, Yale’s Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology (CBIT) hosted a cohort of healthcare specialists at 55 Park Street to participate in the opening ceremonies of the 2019 Yale CBIT Healthcare Hackathon. Attendees included engineers, businessmen, scientists, doctors, students, and more. Individuals hailed from more than 70 different universities and corporations all across the United States, with international participation from Australia, France, Germany, China, and Poland.

This weekend-long event served as a nucleus for collaboration, creativity, and innovation. Over the course of 48 hours, nearly 200 attendees of various backgrounds and divergent professions came together to consider this year’s theme: Genomics. Teams formed naturally and began brainstorming solutions to current healthcare problems including protecting patient data, false diagnoses, and scientific literacy. Throughout the Hackathon, teams met with over 50 mentors, who provided different experiences, expertise, and guidance. The teams also participated in the genius bar, where mentors facilitated conversation to provide feedback and aid development, before the various teams presented their finished pitch to the judges Sunday afternoon.

The Hackathon was entirely free for all those who were accepted to participate, thanks to the generosity of its sponsors: Aetna Foundation, Center for Genomic Health, Stallergenes Greer, Foundation Medicine, Klick Health, Health Haven Hub, Medtronic, Elm Street Venture, and Yale New Haven Hospital.

On Sunday, teams presented their final pitches before a panel of 11 judges, including individuals from the CBIT executive board, representatives from Yale New Haven Hospital, faculty members, medical professionals, and industry leaders. The prizes were awarded according to diverse criteria including level of innovation, impact, and feasibility. Platinum prize ($2,500) was awarded to HypnoTech, gold ($1000) to DVTech, silver ($500) to PhageBook, and bronze ($500) to Genequity. The teams will be moving onto the next phase where they will receive further mentoring and guidance for those who wish to move forward. Next phase goals of such efforts may include maturation of ideas and / or innovations via proving out market feasibility, patent application, and additional seed funding and / or commercialization.

For any questions regarding the Health Hackathon event or the Center for Biomedical Innovation and Technology - CBIT, please contact:  Michelle Nantel (CBIT) at michelle.nantel@yale.edu, the CBIT Team at cbit@yale.edu, or El Lolis (ITS) at el.lolis@yale.edu.