MIT and VA Partner for COVID-19 Hackathon: Finding solutions through collaboration and innovation
Veterans Health Adminstration – Matthew Razak – April 23, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic requires innovative thinking and problem solving right now. Hackathons are a powerful tool to address these challenges. Earlier this month, VA partnered with MIT and a host of other organizations to put on the MIT COVID-19 Challenge “Beat the Pandemic” Hackathon.
Over 1,400 innovators – leaders in academia, industry and healthcare – came together virtually to develop, design, and solve the most pressing problems facing both vulnerable populations and the health care systems taking care of them.
Powerful display of collaboration and innovation
Winning solutions included:
– a telehealth platform that can help monitor COVID-19 patients in their home self-assessment triaging for patients at home
– a way for multiple patients to use a single ventilator
– a platform that connects those in quarantine with livestreams across the country
– a platform that delivers the latest innovations and medical advice to help hospitals navigate the crisis
– a method for disseminating COVID-19 information to rural clinicians more rapidly
“It was a powerful display of incredible collaboration and innovation in the collective fight against a common enemy. I left the weekend with a newfound hope in our ability to not just help the Veterans we serve but beat the pandemic entirely,” said Suzanne Shirley, VHA Director of Partnerships & Community Engagement.
Pursuing User Research When Everyone’s in Quarantine
Timothy Berendt, Contributing Columnist and former Director of Innovation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mass. April 21, 2020
Many innovators are struggling with a big question right now: How do you maintain the quality and breadth of your user research when it seems the whole world is under house arrest due to coronavirus? We all know that the innovation and design world rely on interactions with customers and users, through activities like empathy, anthropology, focus groups, and testing. So how do you preserve that input into your process when everybody is locked down?
It’s an ideal moment for getting your team to embrace new tools and approaches. A few examples…
MIT’s COVID-19 Challenge ‘Beat the Pandemic’ Virtual Hackathon
At the beginning of April BCGDV partnered with MIT on their virtual hackathon series ‘Beat the Pandemic’ as part of their COVID-19 challenge. DV’ers from all over the world took part in the 48 hour virtual hackathon that aimed to tackle the most critical problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Co-Director of the ‘COVID-19 Challenge’, Freddy Nguyen, sat down (remotely) with BCGDV Partner, Nate Beyor after the event. They discussed the origin story of the hackathon series and Freddy explained how he mobilized 4500 brilliant minds from 96 countries to apply to take part. They also touch on how this global crisis has accelerated innovation at an incredible speed and examine how some of these changes may play a part long after this crisis has ended.
MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Beat the Pandemic – How to Pitch
Wall Street Journal: Hackathons Target Coronavirus: Participants tackle global problems from the shortage of ventilators to how to enforce social distancing
Wall Street Journal – Agam Shah – April 9, 2020
Thousands of technology enthusiasts and others are flocking to a new wave of hackathons created to fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
The low-sleep, high-octane sessions have attracted participants world-wide to team up online and suggest solutions to problems such as the equipment shortage for health providers or a better way to track the spread of Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.
“Everyone is looking at the urgency of the situation,” said Youseph Yazdi, executive director at Johns Hopkins Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, which organized a five-day hackathon in the last week of March that attracted 513 teams with 2.331 applicants from 34 countries.
That hackathon was around thematic areas including how to communicate effectively about Covid-19, prevention of transmission within communities and health-care equipment shortages.
HIMSS TV: MIT creates challenge to ‘hack’ COVID-19
MIT creates challenge to ‘hack’ COVID-19
The MIT COVID-19 Challenge searches for ideas to fight the coronavirus via hackathons and virtual events.
MIT Catalysts: Freddy Nguyen
Hosted by Julia Yoo – April 7, 2020
In the first of a special series about MIT community members on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, host Julia Yoo sits down with Dr. Freddy Nguyen, a postdoctoral fellow at MIT and a resident physician at Mount Sinai Hospital. Nguyen talks about the MIT COVID19 Challenge and being on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York.
AbelsonTaylor partners with the MIT COVID19 Challenge 48 Hour Hackathon
AbelsonTaylor – Danielle Jamil – April 7, 2020
The MIT COVID-19 Challenge came to life last weekend. The 48-hour virtual event hosted 1,500 hackers and created 238 teams to address COVID-19 challenges within 10 focus tracks. Participants came from over 96 countries and 49 states, each dealing with different stages of COVID-19 in their communities and made for a richly diverse array of proposed solutions.
Partners, sponsors and over 250 volunteer mentors worked the weekend to provide research and development resources to teams throughout. “The spirit of a healthcare hack is about democratizing innovation. We realize the potential of design thinking and distributive problem solving as a way to incite entrepreneurship. We want to help bring new approaches to some of the hardest human challenges.”, said Freddy Nguyen, MD, PHD, Co-Director MIT COVID-19 Challenge.
As a resident at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, Freddy is on the front lines of the global health pandemic. With only 3 weeks to plan, he and co-organizers Alfonso Martinez, Stephanie MacConnell, Paul Cheek realized that there was a serious need to initiate a virtual hackathon to address the current crisis, and the idea for the MIT COVID-19 Challenge was born.
Mobi Health News: New COVID-19 challenge out of MIT seeks solutions from hackers at home
Mobi Health News – Laura Lovett – April 06, 2020
The new MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Beat the Pandemic is a series of hackathons and digital events focused on coming up with ways to address the virus
With stay at home orders dominating the news cycle, many are looking for ways to help tackle the coronavirus pandemic from home. A group out of MIT is looking to remedy this with a way for various stakeholders to get involved.
Over the weekend, MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Beat the Pandemic hosted the first in a series of virtual hackathons and events aimed at designing new tools to address the virus.
MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Beat the Pandemic I – Awards
MIT COVID-19 Challenge: Beat the Pandemic I – Kickoff
MIT News: MIT’s entrepreneurial ecosystem steps up to the challenge of Covid-19
MIT News – Zach Winn – April 2, 2020
Entrepreneurial groups around the Institute have launched initiatives to address challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Innovation and entrepreneurship aren’t easy. New companies are forced to make due with minimal resources. Decisions must be made in the face of great uncertainty. Conditions change rapidly.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, MIT’s I&E community has stepped up to the unforeseen challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. Groups from many corners of the Institute are adapting to the myriad disruptions brought on by the emergency and spearheading efforts to help the people most affected.