Hackathons: An Introduction
By Kinda Diya and Fatima Lakkis
What is a hackathon?
A combination of “hack” and “marathon”, hackathons create competitive settings for creative thinkers, designer, and developers to collaborate in solving a challenge or to explore groundbreaking ideas. Hosted over 24 to 72 hours, multidisciplinary teams, who typically have just met during the hackathon, race to develop solutions, prototypes or ideas collectively.
While finding their origin in the tech industry, hackathons are now expanding to every industry, from healthcare to education, wherever challenges arise, or innovation is needed.
What do hackathons accomplish?
Hackathons are dynamic events that foster innovation by bringing together diverse teams to solve problems, develop solutions, and rapidly prototype ideas. Companies often use hackathons to discover talent, promote their brand, and explore emerging trends or challenges in their field. These events can serve as launchpads for startups or new ventures, with some offering prizes or funding to help turn ideas into reality. Ultimately, hackathons inspire creativity, encourage collaboration, and build communities around shared goals and innovation.
How are hackathons useful?
Hackathons are on the rise for good reasons: they offer a wide range of benefits for both companies and participants:
For participants:
Learning and Skill Development: Hackathons provide an incredible opportunity to learn and grow. Collaborating with experts on real-world projects allows participants to enhance their technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and teamwork.
Career Advancement and Portfolio Building: Hackathons give participants a chance to showcase their skills to potential employers or sponsors attending the event, leading to new contracts or job offers. For internal hackathons, outstanding performance might pave the way for career progression within the company.
Networking Opportunities: These events are a hub for meeting like-minded individuals, potential collaborators, and industry mentors enabling participants to form valuable connections with professionals from diverse backgrounds.
A Platform for Breakthroughs: While not every hackathon produces groundbreaking innovation, the environment is ideal for creative thinking and fresh ideas. Each event presents participants with the opportunity to contribute to something impactful and potentially be part of a transformative project.
For companies:
Collaboration: Breakthroughs are rarely the result of a single person; as the saying goes, teamwork makes the dream work. That is what hackathons are all about: promoting a collaborative environment where experts come together to brainstorm, share their expertise and develop practical solutions.
Encouraging Diversity: Hackathons attracts a wide variety of participants, creating a diverse group with unique backgrounds and perspectives. This diversity introduces fresh ideas, cultural insights, and unique solutions, often serving as a catalyst for innovation.
Accelerating Product Development: Developing new products is naturally a complex and expensive process for companies. Hackathons simplify this process by inspiring participants to create innovative ideas within a short period of time. They also allow quick prototyping and testing, helping to identify potential issues and improvements early in the process.
Identifying Talent: Hackathons provide companies with the chance to observe potential recruits in action. They are an excellent way to discover skilled individuals under real-world, high-pressure conditions.
Boosting Brand Awareness: Hosting a hackathon generates buzz and positions the company as a hub for innovation and creativity. These events help enhance visibility and engagement within the innovation communities in the relevant industry.
What are Medical Hackathons? And How are They Different from Other Hackathons?
A medical hackathon is a “fruitful” event where professionals from many distinct fields like engineering, design, business, and medicine put their heads together to formulate innovative solutions to realistic healthcare problems, ranging from enhancing patient outcomes to streamlining hospital operations.
Medical Hackathons can lead to substantial medical devices, health related recommendations, and process innovations. However, traditional hackathons usually produce apps or digital solutions.
Another differentiating feature is open access to domain-specific sources. Medical Hackathons usually provide participants with guidance, patient datasets, and access to regulatory insights. Therefore, this highlights that the solutions are practical, compliant with rising standards, and innovative.
Examples of Medical Hackathons in the United States:
MIT Hacking Medicine: Their mission is to energize, strengthen, and empower a diverse global community in healthcare innovation and entrepreneurship to charge medicine to tackle and solve healthcare problems. Their hackathon has led to the formation of many successful startups.
Mayo Clinic Transform Hackathon: They aim to increase the innovation of solutions to solve the rising medical issues by fostering collaboration among diverse participants and addressing the practical challenges faced.
HackMentalHealth at UCSF: They are dedicated to developing technology that can enhance and nurture mental health. They offer participants the opportunity to collaborate with researchers, talented individuals, and industry leaders.
Med Hacks: offers a platform to develop groundbreaking solutions the have immense potential to revolutionize the healthcare industry.
HackED: Our very own hackathon, created in collaboration with the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), offers Emergency Physicians the opportunity to create multidisciplinary teams and innovate during the ACEP annual Scientific Assembly.
Health Tech Companies That Started as Hackathons:
PillPack: This online pharmacy untangles the medication management for patients with chronic conditions. It originated from a hackathon that targeted the inefficiencies in medication distribution. It was acquired for 1 billion dollars by Amazon in 2018.
Twine Health: It’s a collaborative care app that permits patients and their doctors to connect and co-create treatment plans for chronic conditions. It developed during an MIT Hacking Medicine event. It was acquired by Fitbit in 2018.
CarePort Health: It’s an intelligent online platform for patients, hospitals, and skilled nursing facilities to connect and coordinate effective and high-quality discharges. It was acquired by WellSky in 2018.
NightWare: It is a Breakthrough wearable device that aids PTSD patients and veterans by monitoring sleep patterns and providing therapeutic relief. It was developed at a MedHacks event.
Twiage: an award-winning healthcare technology company providing communication workflows between EMS and hospital emergency departments, which allows real-time patient information to flow directly to hospital care teams while a patient is en route. Twiage was acquired by TigerConnect in 2024.
References:
Brightidea. (2024, August 21). What is a hackathon? | Brightidea. https://www.brightidea.com/guide/hackathon/what-is-a-hackathon/
Garanhel, T. (2024, August 19). Your guide to hackathons: What they are and top tips for success. Developer Marketing Alliance. https://www.developermarketing.io/your-guide-to-hackathons-what-they-are-and-top-tips-for-success/
Hackathon.com. (2019, October 19). What is a Hackathon? Hackathon.com. https://tips.hackathon.com/article/what-is-a-hackathon
Yasar, K., Roy, M., & Laskowski, N. (2023, March 8). hackathon. Search CIO. https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/hackathon
MIT Hacking Medicine. (n.d.). https://www.hackingmedicine.mit.edu/
Greguska, E. (n.d.). ASU, Mayo Clinic to host Hackathon for Health Innovation. ASU, Mayo Clinic to host Hackathon for Health Innovation | ASU News. https://news.asu.edu/20220315-solutions-asu-mayo-host-hackathon-health-innovation
Nightmare disorder steals far more than sleep. Image. (n.d.). https://nightware.com/