First Cleveland Medical Hackathon Will Harness Power Of Region's Medical And Tech Communities

Unprecedented Muster Takes Place This Fall at Global Center for Health Innovation

The Cleveland Medical Hackathon, the first event of its kind in Northeast Ohio, will unfold September 26 and 27 at the Global Center for Health Innovation in downtown Cleveland.

The landmark event, presented by Nesco Resource, will bring together some of the brightest minds in the tech and medical communities for a weekend of creativity and collaboration. Participants--including computer programmers, doctors, patient advocates and entrepreneurs--will be challenged to apply innovation and technology to problems facing healthcare.

Lead partners behind the Cleveland MedHack include Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, The MetroHealth System and BioEnterprise. More partners are expected to be announced soon from the Northeast Ohio medical and entrepreneurial communities.

The two-day event will take place in the HIMSS Innovation Center, a state-of-the-art meeting and technology space on the top floor of the global center, adjacent to the Cleveland Convention Center. Application to participate is currently open. There is no fee to apply.

Organizers envision an event that will leverage a regional strength in healthcare while highlighting the role of technology and diverse skills in medical innovation. Participants will compete for prizes and gain insight from investors and industry leaders.

“Clearly, Northeast Ohio has some of the top healthcare providers and companies, and with that a strong spirit of invention,” said Dr. William Morris, the Associate Chief Information Officer at Cleveland Clinic. “So how do we couple ingenuity with the moral mission of better patient care?”

Hackathons—marathon brainstorming sessions that typically include computer coding, or hacking--have long been popular in startup culture as a means of accelerating products and ideas. Cleveland joins a growing list of communities now applying that strategy to medical innovation.

“A hackathon brings a diverse group of extremely bright people together, aligning them behind a common cause,” said Dr. Morris, a co-coordinator of the event. “In this case, we hope to find solutions to challenges we face in healthcare.”

Those challenges include attracting and identifying talent for a growing industry.

“We see an increasing demand for IT talent in the world of medicine,” said Tim McPherson, president and COO of Nesco Resource, the largest staffing firm headquartered in Northeast Ohio and presenting sponsor of the event.“Medical Hackathons are a global movement that highlight the benefits of bringing together talented people to tackle some of the real challenges in medicine today. Nesco Resource is proud to support this event as a reflection of the work that we do every day in bringing together people, technology, and challenges in innovation.”

A key goal of the medhack is to begin to tackle the growing levels of data being collected in medicine and to design and build solutions that will make this data useful to healthcare systems and patients. Thus, the hackathon will pursue a big data theme.

The HIMSS Innovation Center will provide the setting for collaboration and problem solving. One of the only centers of its kind, it is a physical and virtual testing, exhibition and conference facility that commands an entire floor of the Global Center.

The Cleveland Medical Hackathon is free to attend and to participate in, but an application is necessary to ensure a productive mix of expertise and adequate space.Individuals and teams are encouraged. For more information, visit www.clevelandmedicalhackathon.com