Pitch ideas, form teams, get advice from experts, and build a health app in one weekend. Present your finished product in front of a panel of judges for a chance of winning some fantastic prizes!
Hacking Health fosters collaborative innovation by engaging key groups of stakeholders, such as healthcare professionals, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and patients, to create human-centric solutions to improve the health of our communities. Our weekend hackathons are fun, intense, hands-on events where small teams tackle tough problems in a supportive community of peers and mentors.
Hackathon 2018 will centre around Transforming the Aging Experience through Innovation. During the weekend hackathon, let's discover opportunities and build solutions that transform aging and improve the quality of life and health of our aging population.
PARTICIPATE
Pitch Your Ideas on Sparkboard
As soon as you get you register for the hackathon, go to Hacking Health Hamilton 2018 Sparkboard where you can either pitch your project ideas, describing them briefly and their skill requirements (designer, developer, medical expert, etc), or find a pitch/project idea that interests you or that matches your skills.
With this year's theme centred around aging consider: independence; mobility; staying connected with family, friends and community; managing chronic illnesses while remaining active. Have other ideas? Great! Ideas not related to aging? That's ok too! Pitch as many ideas as you like.
See a pitch/project idea that interests you or that matches your skills? Click on the board for further details and click on the Join button near the bottom to support the idea. Joining a project does not automatically assign you to that team, but shows your interest in the idea. (Teams are created on Friday evening of the Hackathon when you choose, after the pitches, which team you would like to work with.)
Need inspiration on making a pitch? Check out last year's Sparkboard. You can also visit previous Hacking Health Hackathon success stories.
Weekend at a Glance
Registration: Your registration fee includes a t-shirt and covers all meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner, see schedule below).
Teams: Teams will be formed Friday evening.
Judges: Our judging panel is made up of healthcare innovators, educators and hackathon pros.
Bring: Your laptop (and charger!), skills and ideas. Come with a collaborative, team-focused mindset.
Use: There will be two 3-D printers available for use.
Share: Your experience on social media using the hashtags #hackingHealth #HamOnt
Multiple Skill Sets Required: Developers, Designers, Healthcare Professionals, Students, Researchers, Product Managers, Business Development, Marketing, Entrepreneurs, Innovators, Mentors, Meta Users
Restrictions:If you have any dietary or mobility restrictions, please inform us when you register.
Go Green: Bring your own water bottle and coffee/tea mug. Reduce the number of plastic bottles and coffee cups that enter into the local landfill.
Check out last year's hackathon video
Terms of Participation Agreement
By attending the Hackathon you are bound by the terms set forth.
Be excellent to each other during the Hackathon. Mean-spirited attitudes, behaviours and any form of harrassment will not be tolerated. You agree to our code of conduct.
By participating in the event, you grant Hacking Health Hamilton permission to capture photos and/or videos of the event.
Tickets to this event are non-refundable. If you are unable to attend, you have the option of giving your ticket to a friend to attend in your place.
Prizes
Application Design Sessions provided by Mohawk MEDIC
Mohawk MEDIC is cross-disciplinary team of experts in digital health, interoperability, integration with healthcare systems, and application design. The Application Design Sessions will focus on design, architecture, requirements gathering, wireframing, and will be customized to the needs of your team.
1st Place: five 3-hour application design sessions
2nd Place: three 3-hour application design sessions
3rd Place: one 3-hour application design session
Student research internship grant provided by McMaster Institute for Research on Aging
MIRA is the McMaster University cross-Faculty research institute for advancing the science of aging. It aims for transforming the experience of aging by transforming the science on aging. A team working on an aging challenge with a MIRA research sponsor may, as determined by MIRA, win a student research internship grant.
Entrepreneurial training from Innovation Factory
iF ignites innovation. Through workshops, programming, one-on-one mentoring and aiding with access to funding, they help startups commercialize their ideas and small/medium enterprises innovate within their organizations. They are offering a prize for access to entrepreneurial training courses, one-on-one business advice and expert sessions.
Consultation at The Forge, McMaster's business incubator
The Forge, is a startup incubator and the McMaster University on-campus entrepreneurship initiative. Its incubator program is designed for anyone pursuing scalable, technology-based companies.
Amazon Echo from Joule
Joule is the Canadian Medical Associations (CMA) accelerator company. Created to curate cutting-edge products and services, and to be a catalyst in physician-led innovation, Joule makes it easier for physicians to be at their best.
All participants can complete a ballot to win an Amazon Echo.
Judges
Dr. Dennis DiValentino currently maintains a private family practice in urban core Hamilton, in area designated as a Red Zone, which is an area noted for having far worse health outcomes than the rest of the country on average. Dr. DiValentino is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at McMaster University where he recently received the Preceptor Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Pre-Clerkship Medicine. Dr. DiValentino is the current President of the Hamilton Academy of Medicine as well as the co-founder of Ramcare a Virtual Care initiative aimed at bridging gaps in the health care system through the use of technology.
Paul Brown is the General Manager for Mohawk College’s MEDIC Applied Research Centre. Having worked with Mohawk for 8 years, he oversees international projects which include the creation of OpenIZ, an open-sourced immunization platform for Tanzania, implementations of the Everest Client Registry in South-East Asia, and educational knowledge transfers around the world. In North America, his partnerships include NSERC, IRAP, eHealth Ontario, Canada Health Infoway, and Ontario's Ministry of Long-Term Health Care. He is responsible for the delivery of the digital health Technology Access Centre program which provides technical and business development to small and medium sized enterprises across Canada.
A passionate advocate for innovation, Mr. Brown creates linkages between entrepreneurs, funders, and government agencies. He is a proud graduate of Software Engineering at Mohawk College and McMaster University. He has mentored hundreds of students to provide the industry with new future ready technologists.
Elizabeth Thorsen loves startups. Through her role as Sr. Events & Marketing Manager at Innovation Factory, she organizes several pitch competitions, including The Synapse Life Science Competition, ELEV8, and Lion’s Lair. Elizabeth spends her days working with Hamilton based health, tech, and other startups, to help them refine their business models, develop a sales strategy, and access funding and investment as needed to help them reach their commercialization goals.
Day 1 – Friday
5:00 pm: Registration & Pitch Clinic
6:00 pm: Networking Reception, light food & refreshments provided
7:00 pm: Program Begins
7:30 pm: Pitches
8:30 pm: Team Formation
10:00 pm: Venue Closes
Day 2 – Saturday
8:00 am - 9:00am: Breakfast
9:00 am: Workshop!
9:30 am: HACK!
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm: HACK!
1:00 pm - 4:00 pm: Mentoring Sessions
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm: Dinner
7:00 pm: HACK!
10:00 pm: Venue Closes
Day 3 – Sunday
8:00 am - 9:00 am: Breakfast
9:00 am: HACK!
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm: Lunch
1:00 pm - 2:00pm: Final Pitch Preparation
2:00 pm: Demo and Pitch Program
3:30 pm: Judges deliberate
4:00 pm: Winners announced and Prizes given out!
5:00 pm - Venue Closes
QUESTIONS or COMMENTS?
For more information, visit our website at http://hacking-health.org/hamilton.
Email: hamilton@hackinghealth.ca
Twitter: @HHHamOnt
Facebook: facebook.com/HackingHealthHamilton
Instagram: @hhhamont