Join a team, build solutions to healthcare problems over a weekend.

• What is a hackathon?

• A hackathon is a collaborative computer programming event attended by developers and designers who want to have fun and learn new skills by rapidly building prototypes of their ideas.

  A hackathon often begins with project pitches, where individuals make short presentations to describe the idea they would like to work on. Based on these presentations, attendees can choose to join a project which interests them. At the end of the day, everyone gathers to see each team present what they accomplished.

• How is Hacking Health different from a typical hackathon?

• Hacking Health is designed to mix hackers with healthcare professionals who may not know how to design or program, but have a deep understanding of problems that need to be solved, as well as strong connections to target users of applications that will be developed.

  The mixing of healthcare and technical professionals adds unique value and challenge to this event. Medical professionals will need to learn how to adapt their ideas for a technical audience; Hackers will need to make extra effort to understand unfamiliar problems and help non-technical domain experts refine their ideas.

• Who can attend?

• Hackers with skills -- programmers, designers, and the like - are asked to come and join a projects, as well as work with healthcare professionals to explore their ideas.

  Healthcare Professionals with ideas that require technical assistance -- doctors, surgeons, nurses, administrators, etc -- are asked to come and present their ideas. Our goal will be to use the skills and energy of other attendees to move each idea forward.

• Is there a cost?

• No. We are working with our sponsors to make the event free of charge.

• What is the goal?

• In the short term, our goal is to rapidly prototype practical ideas that could be useful in healthcare.

  Our broader vision is to foster the kind of collaborative, cross-disciplinary relationships that lead to more significant innovation down the road. Not all ideas can be prototyped in a day, and many ideas lay dormant simply because domain experts do not know who to talk to about building their ideas.

  We believe that healthcare will improve as we bring technical expertise closer to front-line problems.

• Can anyone submit a project?

• Anyone who brings a healthcare-related idea will have the opportunity to pitch it to the group, and try to assemble the right team to move it forward.

• What about intellectual property -- who will own my idea?

• As a facilitator, Hacking Health does not make any claims to IP that emerges from the event. It up to each team to decide ownership of any work that is done during the hackathon. Teams generally share IP based on individual contributions and commitment, but project leads should establish that with their team in advance.

  A hackathon is an ideal place to work on ideas which you are comfortable sharing with others, but this does not mean that you must give up ownership of your idea or project. Some hackathon projects lead to the founding of a real company down the road, while others are released for free to the community. It is up to each project lead to decide on a structure, and communicate this to collaborators.

  The risks of exposing an idea are often outweighed by the benefits of the feedback and collaboration you will receive if people get excited about your vision. If you have concerns about the IP in your project, we recommend consulting a lawyer.

• Do the projects have to be submitted beforehand?

• Several days before the event, we will launch a collaborative online space where you can pitch your idea to other attendees, and hackers can browse projects to see what interests them.

  If you have questions about your idea, please email us: [email protected]