Global Health Hackathon: Innovation, collaboration and fun with a purpose

Are you interested in disrupting the status quo? Do you like the challenge and innovation of creating solutions to provide care in regions where resources are lacking?

Join us Sept. 19-20, Baylor Global Initiatives hosts our first Global Health Hackathon.

What exactly is a “hackathon”? Hackathons are events where people from a variety of disciplines form teams and at warp speed develop innovative solutions to a particular problem.

Simultaneously social and scientific, hackathons are high-energy events with food, fun, and a focused purpose: in this case, global health.

Our hackathon will focus on emergency response and procedural care with Baylor College of Medicine faculty engaged in medical efforts in Africa presenting cases related to Ebola, obstetrics & gynecology, endoscopy, anesthesia and surgery.

Since these cases present clinical challenges from severely resource-limited environments, the opportunities for improvement and ingenuity will be tremendous.

Our hope is that multidisciplinary teams (students, engineers, nurses, doctors, computer programmers, business professionals, etc.) will coalesce to create transformative solutions to some of the most significant issues in global health.

Solutions may be software, hardware, medical devices, clinical pathways, delivery or financing mechanisms that run the gamut in complexity, size, and approach.

Whether they involve duct tape and pipe cleaners or complex software, our hope is that the weekend will generate innovations that are: disruptive, cost-effective, and environmentally-suitable for resource-limited regions.

We have selected some of the most experienced, world-renown faculty from Baylor, Rice University, Texas A&M University, Baylor University, the University of Houston, University of Texas and NASA to help teams define, design, and present their solutions. We even have mentors Skyping from Africa and India for the late-night (24-hour) hackers.

Winning teams will be awarded prizes and potential funding to further develop prototypes or concepts.

How do you participate? Register online before Sept. 9.

We look forward to seeing you and transforming global health.

-By Dr. Sharmila Anandasabapathy, professor of Medicine and director of Baylor Global Innovations at Baylor College of Medicine