Hacking Health is a non-profit, volunteer-based movement born in Montreal in 2012. Today, the organization counts 40 chapters over the five continents and builds an international community of health innovation facilitators. Our mission is to foster inclusive innovation by connecting people to solve real-world health problems. In Montreal, Quebec City, and all other cities, we catalyze and empower the local ecosystems to build innovative, concrete solutions to healthcare challenges.
At first, our mission looks impossible. Healthcare problems seem overwhelming: institutions are rigid, administered in silos and health is regulated by complex and impenetrable authorities. Though, never underestimate the power of a collaborative effort and the cumulative effect of years of community-building, knowledge exchange, and catalyzing events.
Many times a year, we bring together patients, healthcare professionals, physicians, technologists, designers, entrepreneurs, decision makers, business leaders, politicians, researchers, administrators and governments to work collaboratively and solve real health issues with tangible solutions. We built communities through the organization of cafés, workshops, community connectors and co-creation marathons better known as health hackathons or design jams, during which we set up multidisciplinary teams, including a “problem expert”, and hand them a challenge: create a solution to a specific health problem.
Until now, we have organized +150 health focused hackathons worldwide with +18,000 participants. These events have led in Montreal and Quebec City to concrete realizations like:
- a brainwave electroencephalogram (EEG) capture device to prevent delirium in emergency, intensive care and post-op patients
- a mobile paediatric clinic,
- a platform made for the collaborative creation, scientific validation and clinical diffusion of digital rehabilitation therapies
- an educational game on tablet or paper helping young patients to better cope with hospitalization and to communicate with their parents and caregivers
- a solution to assist intensive units in their bed management
- and over 1900 other innovative projects in healthcare
