Medical Library Project 162: Nova Southeastern University

The Martin & Gail Press Health Professions Division Library at Nova Southeastern University NSU in collaboration with The Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine NSUMD will host a healthcare hackathon, a multi-day event, in which a large number of students will meet to engage in a collaborative environment to address community health issues, stimulate university-wide inter-professional partnership and promote a culture of exploration and innovation. The healthcare hackathon will bring together NSU students for a 48-hour innovation marathon in an effort to address local health care concerns, specifically pertaining to patient education and bridging the gap between knowledge and practice. The hackathon will include community speakers from non-profit health organizations, faculty mentors and expert judges. The students will come together and work in groups to develop projects to solve healthcare issues within the community. Winning projects will receive post-hackathon support in order to assist with prototyping and connecting students to further resources for turning their ideas into reality. Hackathon projects and outcomes will be distributed across NSU via a website, and student projects will be incubated in our community to maximize visibility and impact. This initial health hackathon will serve as a proof of concept to establish a sustainable and repeating annual hackathon, which can be scaled to include potential collaborations among neighboring institutions. This hackathon will also serve as NSUMD's inauguration of their 'Never-Ending Hackathon' - a continuously supported cycle for health innovation projects available to NSU students via online communication and dedicated mentorship and support. Funding is being requested from the NNLM/SEA Medical Library Project Grant to partially fund planning and event day.