NewYork Presbyterian hackathon advances patient engagement technology
PresbyHangouts is the application that won New York's first hospital-focused hackathon.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital brought together software designers and developers for InnovateNYP, a two-day competition in which 17 teams worked to develop tools that would enhance and improve myNYP, the hospital's online patient portal.
Five judges assessed each team's innovation on its ability to improve patient engagement and the patient experience at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Health Warriots' PresbyHangouts won the $50,000 first prize. The winning platform accesses the hospital's current portal to allow inpatients to connect with other patients with common interests, allowing them to play games together and communicate through instant messaging and video chat. It aims to build patient community and provide a vehicle to deliver educational material through video chat. Team members were Hannah Oppenheimer of Brooklyn; Michael Wenger of Hoboken, N.J.; Andrea Cremese of Brooklyn; Eric Chen of Manhattan; and Dan Firepine, an emergency room physician from Berkeley, Calif.
Team Bogney took the $25,000 second prize with its application, Intermed. The two-man team aimed to address the isolation and anxiety many patients face while in the hospital by creating an app that allows patients to connect with other patients and "mentors" based on interests or condition, connect with friends and family through social networks and access tools that promote relaxation and meditation, such as calming music. Team members were Stanislav Bogdanov and John Kinney, both of Long Island, N.Y.
Some Team won $10,000 finishing in third place for its Presbyterian Plus application which aimed to improve the patient experience by developing a platform that streamlines the appointment check-in process and provides a patient support and reward system for healthy activities, such as scheduling and showing up for doctor appointments and keeping track of medication schedules. The team was comprised of Shahnar and Fahm Sikder, two brothers from Queens, N.Y.
In total, InnovateNYP awarded $85,000 in cash and prizes. All submissions can be viewed at http://innovatenyp.challengepost.com/.
"We saw a number of creative and well-executed ideas at InnovateNYP, so picking only three winners was extremely difficult," said Aurelia Boyer, senior vice president and CIO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. "Our plan now is to reach out to all of the participants with innovative concepts to continue to engage and learn more about how they could potentially help patients at NewYork-Presbyterian."
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.