Hacking Health is a social organization that pairs innovators with healthcare experts to build solutions to front-line healthcare problems through the use of emerging technology.

History

The organization started off in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Quebec, Canada in 2012 with a weekend-long hackathon to encourage collaboration between healthcare professionals and IT experts. Since then, Hacking Health events have been held in cities across Canada, the US and internationally.

Event Formats

Held over a weekend, Hacking Health

hackathon A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest, datathon or codefest; a portmanteau of '' hacking'' and ''marathon'') is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time such as 24 or 48 h ...

s consist of 200-300 participants where designers and developers collaborate with doctors, nurses, clinic managers and other healthcare professionals to develop prototypes that can be put to test in clinics and hospitals. The event also attracts industry professionals, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Held typically in the evening, Hacking Health Café meetups are regular events to bring together entrepreneurs in the healthcare industry and foster relationships between technology talent and healthcare experts. These shorter, casual events help interested parties stay up-to-date on local collaborations, projects and start-ups.

Locations in Canada

is the location of the original Hacking Health in 2012. Subsequent hackathons have been held in 2014. *

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

's first Hacking Health event was in 2012. Subsequent events have been held at

MaRS Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...

in 2013, at Sick Kids in 2014. *

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

has had hackathons in 2013 and in 2014 at the Coach e-Health Conference. * Hackathons have been held in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, and

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

. *

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

has held events since 2014. *

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

has hel
meetups
since 2015.

Locations outside Canada

Hacking Health has spread globally since 2013 to

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, Strasbourg, Hong Kong, Zurich, Bucharest, and Detroit. 2013 Strasbourg (France) 2014 * Berlin (Germany) * Milan (Italy) * New York City (USA) * Cape Town (South Africa) 2015 * Brisbane (Australia) * Bordeaux (France) * Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) * Maastricht (Netherlands) * Mexico City (Mexico) * Nijmegen (Netherlands) * Ribeirão Preto (Brazil) * Valais (Switzerland) * Windsor / Detroit (USA) 2016 * Abadan (Iran) * Asturias (Spain) * Guadalajara (Mexico) * Groningen (Netherlands) * Le Havre (France) * Leiden (Netherlands) * Liverpool (United Kingdom) * Londrina (Brazil) * Madrid (Spain) * Melbourne (Australia) * Monterrey (Mexico) * Nice (France) * Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) * Santa Catarina (Brazil) * Sorocaba (Brazil) * Joinville (Brazil) * São Paulo (Brazil) * Sfax (Tunisia) 2017 * Belo Horizonte (Brazil) * Besançon (France) * Brasilia (Brazil) * Leon (Mexico) * Querétaro (Mexico) * Salvador (Brazil) * Utrecht (Netherlands) * Florianópolis (Brazil)

Spin off projects

Hacking Health has been the start of several innovative

mHealth mHealth (also written as m-health or mhealth) is an abbreviation for mobile health, a term used for the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices. The term is most commonly used in reference to using mobile communicatio ...

research and implementation projects to improve healthcare. In the Netherlands, the

Participatient Participatient is a smartphone app to involve patients in decision making during their hospital stay. The app was created as an academic project in the Netherland to use eHealth as a tool to stimulate patient engagement. This project started at ...

project to engage patients in catheter infection prevention, started at Dutch Hacking Health 2016.

References

External links

*
Official website Hacking Health Berlin

A weekend of designing better healthcare – Techvibes

Bridging the gap between doctors and hackers to upgrade healthcare – Globe and Mail

Doctors and developers hacking their way to better healthcare – CTV News

Hacking Health: Bottom-up innovation for healthcare – Time and Innovation Management Review

Hacking healthcare in a good way – Macleans

Is the centralized hospital obsolete? - Techvibes
{{Authority control 2012 establishments in Ontario Medical and health organizations based in Quebec Non-profit organizations based in Montreal Technology organizations