Entrepreneurship

Swiss Hacking Health: The Secret Of An Amazing Longevity

After five successful editions, Arkathon, the Hacking Health Switzerland-Valais‘ hackathon is one of the most important health hackathons in Switzerland. A must for the country’s disruptive minds!

How does such an event work? Immersed in a medical facility over a weekend, participants meet with health professionals and patients to develop innovative solutions to solve their health challenges. At the end of these 48 intense hours, the objective is to present a jury of experts concrete digital solutions to address health issues. Each year, the three winners are followed by an acceleration program offered by The Ark Foundation and Swiss Digital Health.

>> Discover the after movie of the last Arkathon’s edition

A robust ecosystem: a work over the years

In the tradition of Hacking Health’s events, Arkathon infused its spirit of innovation and create strong synergies between very diversified stakeholders: academics, institutes and health professionals, patient associations, industry, start-ups,… Partnerships have been created over the years between the actors of digital health innovation: The Ark Foundation, Swiss Digital Health, the Clinique Romande de réadaptation, the Valais hospital site, the HES-SO Valais/Wallis, EPFL Valais/Wallis, GRIMM, the Institut de Recherche en réadaptation, etc.

>> Discover the interviews of the jury about the last Arkathon’s edition

This type of events accelerates projects and immediately detects their technical feasibility and economic potential,” explains Sébastien Mabillard, organizing member of Arkathon HH Switzerland – Valais. ” For the past 5 years, acceleration programs have been offered to hackathon winners by Swiss Digital Health and the Ark Foundation. It’s a way to get these nuggets to market quickly. Our objective is to encourage the emulation of projects with our partners and to support solution providers to “feed” the innovation cluster with viable prototypes to quickly respond to the needs of the field.

Many success stories around the Arkathon of Hacking Health Valais

Recently, a start-up company, Transcend, created by three Valais computer science students, has developed an innovative training tool for high-tech rescue, based on virtual reality technologies. Another hat off to the start-up Eyeware, which has just raised a significant sum of €1.9 million for its eye-tracking system. These two solutions have hatched during previous editions of the Arkathon and are now shining on national and international markets!

>> Discover the interview of three winners’ teams of the last Arkathon’s edition

Join the community and hack tomorrow’s health !

Curious about our event? Do you want to participate in the 2020 edition and contribute its extraordinary longevity with us? Click here to find more information.

Our team of 4, Sébastien Mabillard, Nadia Mottier, Joël Rossier and Frédérique Décaillet, is looking forward to welcoming you to the Valais Alps!

 

Delphine DavanSwiss Hacking Health: The Secret Of An Amazing Longevity
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Hacking Health Hackathon, by Besançon (France)

—– Retrouvez l’article original en français —–

On October 2018, the Hacking Health chapter of Besançon organized its second health hackathon (open innovation marathon). This event confirmed the enthusiasm raised by the first edition, and highlighted three strong trends:

A vast majority of students participated in the marathon: 75% of the 309 participants came from the local university or the “grandes écoles” (renowned engineer and business schools). This massive mobilization of students generates extraordinary energy, creativity, and generosity.

– The expertise of the local ecosystem is well represented: Microtechnology and miniaturization, a specialty inherited from the watch industry of which Besançon is a leader. Thus, many highly skilled engineers have joined teams composed of digital developers, electronic specialists, and designers.

– An important fablab (Fabrication Laboratory) gathering all the material and human resources of two fablabs and two engineering schools allowed to prototype operational devices in less than 48 hours.

extraordinary energy, creativity, and generosity

In this context, all the 24 health professionals and patients who came to pitch their issue have found a team. No team gave up during the weekend, and the quality of the solutions was terrific. This may explain that, two months after the marathon, two project holders are about to create their startup. Since this cannot be done overnight, we created a 3-month incubator program after the hackathon to assist teams in the maturation of their projects and help them connect with the right partners.

Another novelty in 2018: the creation of a showroom, in parallel with the innovation marathon. Seventeen French and Swiss Hacking Health project leaders came to present their innovation to the public, share their experience, and expand their network.

Join the 2019 hackathon in Besançon

– Or find the nearest Hacking Health event

Would you like to participate in the 3rd Open Innovation Marathon of Health in Besançon? Would you enjoy prototyping solutions to respond to real problems posed by health professionals and patients? What about an exciting and entertaining weekend based on cooperation and exchange?

Join the Hacking Health hackathon in Besançon from 18 to 20 October 2019 and imagine tomorrow’s healthcare solutions!

———- Author: Christophe Dollet, Leader of the Hacking Health chapiter in Besançon and Coordinator of France-based chapters. Christophe works at Smart City, a project of the city of Besançon.

Watch this video to get a feeling of the 2018 hackathon in Besançon.

 

 

Delphine DavanHacking Health Hackathon, by Besançon (France)
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Is nursing compatible with an entrepreneurial culture?

Read the original article in Portuguese here. The author, Bruna Nadaletti is a volunteer at Hacking Health Santa Catarina (Brazil) and a Nurse with a specialty in Adult Intensive Care. Bruna owns a Master in Education.

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Let’s take a moment to reflect on the following situation:

Health service users are much more informed and demanding than ever before because of technological advances. They tend to act as consumers and require that health professionals develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes for needs that were not previously expressed. Have you ever thought about that?

How many hours of their workday do nurses spend with their patients? Nursing is one of the professions that spends most of its time close to the patient. Nurses face daily with increasingly difficult challenges, and to solve them, it needs to put in practice creativity and to innovation. In other words, nurses need to get an entrepreneurial spirit. But now, as a practitioner nurse, I ask:

Are we, nurses, prepared for innovation and entrepreneurship? Do we feel safe for this, considering the training we received?

Well, we need first to talk about a little more about the distance that still exists between innovation and entrepreneurship with nursing professionals. This situation results in professionals who are afraid of doing differently, who end up suffering from intense pressures of the labor market, which is getting increasingly competitive in all areas of knowledge.

Most programs in entrepreneurship differentiate two forms: business entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship. The first form focuses on business and measures its success through economic and financial evolution. With the second form, the social mission is at the heart of the business model, and success is associated with the achievement of a previously defined objective. However, when analyzing the ultimate goal of the two forms, we can understand that both target gain and profitability. Nurses can do both, but the context will define the type.

Entrepreneurship gives nurses a new professional avenue

Whether autonomous or attached to a healthcare institution, can entrepreneurship be understood as the ability to identify possibilities and innovate continuously? For this, it is necessary for the professional to develop an interest in market issues, which he/she is already aware of real needs and able to react in an innovative way, address emerging needs, and bring valuable solutions thanks to his/her professional experience.

A practical example of innovation

As a concrete example of innovation in the routine of nursing, aiming to add value to care, I name the shift. It can be seen as a process that allows for the continuity of care through the organization and transmission of patient’s information among nursing professionals.

Nursing staff number has an impact on patient safety. Thus, some hospital institutions wanted to innovate and redefined the moment of the shift. The nursing station is exposed to many factors that may negatively influence the quality of information: interaction with other professionals, telephone ringing, patient calling bell, among others. Now shift happens at the edge of the bed, where professionals are close to the context surrounding the patient in question, visualizing everything essential to be passed on. With the possibility of innovating even further, the patient participates in the passage of the shift and feels responsible for his/her treatment, evolution, and safety.

About nurses in Brazil

Probably when you think about being a nurse, the first environment you experience is the hospital. Do you know why? Because historically, the professional environment of nurses is associated with a health institution, either public or private. Until now, we have not yet been able to consolidate ourselves as autonomous professionals, even though this right was granted on September 3, 1946, by ministerial order, and entrepreneurship actions were initiated by Florence Nightingale. To see change, a cultural shift is necessary, from the training of professionals in HEI to the professional’s understanding of their perspectives, which go far beyond patient care.

Due to imposed routines, most nurses can not see entrepreneurship as something accessible, demonstrating a detachment to related concepts, often not knowing what it means. To bring nursing closer to innovation and entrepreneurship, it is vital that you, the nurse, visualize yourself in this scenario and show interest, putting into practice creative and innovative attitudes. Innovation doesn’t always mean creating something from scratch, preferably adapted to the reality that will be implemented to obtain positive results.

Nurse wins top award for mobile app design at Hacking Health

How many times have you been afraid to show your creativity and consequent innovation by fear of making mistakes? It is not only with you but with a large number of professionals. Rethinking and remaking are part of the innovation process, which must be continually re-evaluated. Challenges and changes should be seen as attractive to nurses who want to innovate. Comfort zone should be disturbing, instigating new avenues.

Be the change who want to see

Technological and scientific development, which facilitates and favors necessary conditions for nurses to modify their professional and entrepreneurial performance, should be a reason for constant search of professional updates. To be seen as indispensable in a multi-professional team, it is necessary to adopt and execute a professional posture that meets the current needs and, with innovative and entrepreneurial actions, modify the experience.

When I speak about a lived reality, I am not just talking about the physical structure, materials, and equipment or insertion of technology in the assistance; I am talking about patient experience, which is one of the most discussed subjects at the moment. How can I improve the patient experience with the assistance of my team? Is it possible? Yes, it is! Here is an example, where innovation was allied with humanization: a project called “Cinema in the Nursery” was developed in a hospital. Patients with immunological conditions are gathered every week in an improvised movie theater in the hospital and allowed to have popcorn and juice. This action is multi-professional, coordinated by nurses, intending to relieve stress due to the period of hospitalization and improve the patients’ quality of life.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are growing within the nurse profession, which increase needs to disseminate perspectives of actions and instill the interest of nursing professionals to develop their potential and explore new professional scenarios.

I end my writing with a question, which I would like you to reflect on: what benefits do innovation and entrepreneurship bring into your professional practice? What could you bring of value and differential to your professional performance with innovation and entrepreneurship? I wish you a good reflection and until the next!


About the author: Bruna Nadaletti is a volunteer at Hacking Health Santa Catarina and a Nurse with a specialty in Adult Intensive Care. Bruna owns a Master in Education.

We count several nurses within the Hacking Health movement. Read the articles included in this article and watch the video to learn more about being a nurse-entrepreneur:

Windsor nurse’s health-care app idea a winner

Delphine DavanIs nursing compatible with an entrepreneurial culture?
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