A “hack” of this kind brings together creative and technical individuals to brainstorm and share on an area of challenge. Held at Thomas Jefferson University, with the theme of “Reinventing Healthcare Access and Delivery,” this year’s health hack attracted 50 teams under the “Connected Health” category, all ready to conjure and present concepts, solutions, and potential leaps of progress in making informed health ubiquitous.
The HSX team was tasked with addressing this prompt, proposition, and problem: “Breaking down the innovation silos in Philadelphia and looking to HSX as an innovation resource, we have both the community in mind and a much larger scale population to work with.”
HSX team’s schematic of the challenge.
The HSX team proposed this solution: “Create an API-based data platform for the region and connect not just clinical data together, but other health organizations that have complimentary services (e.g., NantHealth, Comcast, Verizon, Uber/Lyft, Quest Diagnostics), to become the infrastructure of connected health for this region.”
Nate Hecker presents the HSX solution at the health hack.
The HSX team met with a variety of participants from different industries interested in the solution and in HSX’s activities. Before and after presenting, the HSX team conferenced with Jefferson’s Innovation Team, with the lead from Jeff Connect, with representatives from Comcast, and with a venture capitalist interested in the idea.
“There were some really great ideas and great proposals on how to fix some big gaps in healthcare presented,” says Nathan Hecker, HSX Technical Operations Lead.
“We were glad to participate, have this platform, and get good feedback from our fellow hackathoners,” says Craig Burdulis, HSX Interface Analyst.
HSX team’s schematic of the solution.
The technical offering from the HSX team aligned well with emphasis in the health information technology field on API solutions, including the Health API Boot Camp event that the IHE (Integrating the Health Enterprise) initiative will offer in 2017.
“The Health Hack was an excellent opportunity to show off HSX’s innovation prowess in the region,” says Daniel Wilt, HSX Senior Director of Information Technology and Chief Information Security Officer.
The staff agreed that the event was great exposure for HealthShare Exchange. “This effort by two younger members of our technology team was a good lead-in to our vision for HSX and the next iteration of our business plan,” says Martin Lupinetti, HSX’s Executive Director.
“It was a lot of fun and great networking,” says Nate.
