Innovate2Impact (I2I) recently held its inaugural I2I Hackathon: Medical Devices event, a lively and interactive forum that brought together healthcare and innovation professionals to collaborate on ways to use technology to address real-world clinical problems faced daily at Lurie Children’s.
“We designed the I2I Hackathon with two themes in mind—empower clinicians to generate solutions to the challenges they face daily and foster interdisciplinary collaboration—to show the participants that they hold the keys to innovation,” said Kosh Ghosh, Director of the Innovation Program.
During the four-hour event held at Lurie Children’s, 24 participants, including nurses and doctors from the hospital and students from Northwestern University Segal Design Institute, were split into three inter-disciplinary teams to “hack” four clinical problems submitted by Lurie Children’s clinicians: enhancing bedside supply storage, automating peripheral intravenous extravasation detection, improving interfaces for non-invasive ventilation, and optimizing sterile field transfers. With guidance from professional facilitators, the teams discussed each clinical need and brainstormed and sketched concepts for medical device solutions. Then the teams came together as one group to share ideas, receive additional input, and vote on the top concepts. The event concluded with the opportunity for the participants to showcase these solutions to hospital leaders.
“In total, 179 solutions to 4 clinical problems were generated during the hackathon. And while the top solutions as voted on by the participants were presented to leadership, all are being evaluated by the I2I team for development potential based on patentability, market relevance, regulatory requirements, and technical feasibility,” said Kelley Elahi, MSE, BSN, RN, CPN, Manager, Innovation Portfolio.
Future hackathons and other I2I events are in the works. In the meantime, if you are interested in innovation, want to know more about the innovation process, or learn how your ideas can be scaled to have significant impact on health, visit the Innovate2Impact page.
