MARBLEHEAD, Mass., May 11, 2020 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- As COVID-19 raises new health and healthcare challenges for an already taxed workforce and system, nurses and other frontline healthcare workers—given their proximity and time spent in direct patient care—have a unique, invaluable perspective that enables them to see care challenges, and solution options. Technology is an essential tool in bridging the challenge-care gap. To that end, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, the Society of Nurse Scientists Innovators Entrepreneurs and Leaders (SONSIEL), and DevUP announce the first Nurse Hack for Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon, occurring online May 15-17, 2020. The virtual hackathon is a timely opportunity for those on the frontline to apply their experience, resourcefulness and innovative thinking and employ technology to help improve response to the pandemic, and save lives.
The Nurse Hack for Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon will convene nurses, other frontline health workers, software developers, engineers, and other IT staff to help solve COVID-19 healthcare challenges with technological solutions. Over the weekend of May 15-17th, individuals will work in interdisciplinary teams, using the Microsoft® Teams platform, to develop solutions to problems clinicians see in daily practice within one of five challenge areas:
- Technology/Remote Patient Monitoring – Acute Care
- Technology/Remote Patient Monitoring – Home Setting
- Patient Transfer, Hand-off, and Huddle
- Data and Reporting
- Resiliency and Self-care.
Teams will be mentored over the duration of the event by nursing leaders, entrepreneurs, and developers. By the end of the weekend, teams will have developed minimally viable products (MVPs) to be rapidly applied in healthcare settings. Teams will pitch their solutions to a panel of judges, including those with expertise in innovation, technology and business, and evaluated for impact on human health, innovativeness, completeness, speed to market and ability to scale. All final MVP solutions will be open-source intellectual property and the code will be uploaded to the GitHub software development platform so that hospitals, health systems, and community-based organizations will be able to easily access and deploy the solutions.
Remarked Marion Leary, RN, MSN, MPH, SONSIEL Board of Directors, "The Nurse Hack for Health: COVID-19 virtual hackathon is meant to provide nurses with the support, resources, and tools needed to help create solutions to the problems they are seeing on the frontlines during this pandemic. Nurses are true leaders in health and healthcare innovation, and hackathons are an amazing way to connect nurses with other interdisciplinary colleagues, such as engineers and computer programmers, who can help bring their innovative ideas from conception to reality—something that is extremely important right now."
Said Hiyam Nadel, MBA, CCG, RN, SONSIEL Board of Directors, "Frontline nurses and caregivers' newly acquired experience with COVID-19 patients makes them acutely aware of gaps in care. They are the best equipped to come to the virtual hackathon weekend identifying these needs. I'm excited to see what they will come up with for solutions with the mentorship and support from J&J, Microsoft, and SONSIEL."
Stated Rebecca C. Love, MSN, RN, SONSIEL President & Co-Founder, "Stated Rebecca C. Love, MSN, RN, SONSIEL President & Co-Founder, "Never before has our mission been so clear and, in my lifetime, so needed. Every minute we spend on collectively built and purposed solutions ensures we are contributing to greater recovery and improved outcomes. We all are driven to create solutions to save patients' lives in the face of COVID-19. This event specifically is designed to meet real and far-reaching impacts with knowledge, experience, and expertise. We hope you will join us. My thanks to our partners, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and DevUP, to the SONSIEL Board of Directors and members, and to all of our healthcare workers, daily committed to this work."
The Nurse Hack for Health: COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon is free of charge and open to nurses, nursing students, retired nurses, healthcare professionals, engineers, developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else with an interest in helping to solve a problem related to COVID-19 utilizing technology. Participants must commit for the entire weekend in order to ensure team results. Interested participants must register at https://nursehack4health.org/. Follow the event and efforts on social media with #NurseHack4Health.
ABOUT SONSIEL
SONSIEL is a national and international platform of nurse scientists, innovators, and entrepreneurs, directly impacting health and the healthcare ecosystem through innovation and entrepreneurship; SONSIEL is a purpose-built society of nurses designed to create new opportunities and solutions across healthcare. Nurses are on the front lines, working with all healthcare team members to keep patients and the community safe. For more information about SONSIEL, please visit https://www.sonsiel.org/. Follow SONSIEL on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SONSIEL2 (@SONSIEL2); Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Sonsielnurse/ (@SONSIELnurse); YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpeapLA1QkY45l9NdOkxtQA/ (SONSIEL SONSIEL); and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/sonsielnurse/ (@SONSIELNURSE).
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