Health Hack FAQs

Patient-centric: we are all patients or potential patients. Patients are at the core of the DayOne Health Hack initiative, they help define challenges based on their own personal experience as well as that of their peers; “patient champions” are present during the hackathon providing both first-hand knowledge and inspiration.

Aspirational: “do good, feel good”. The participants are purpose-driven.

Creative and collaborative: release IP constraints, open-source software/hardware is encouraged, connection to ongoing open-source initiatives is highly encouraged; in case proprietary platforms are available, the participants “vote with their feet” and chose the tools they prefer during the event.

Relevant and scalable: use industrial-grade techs and patient-relevant data sets to create realistic options for innovation impact during the hackathon. The tech available at the hackathon should be scalable and fit for purpose, to enable the potential for continuity of projects after the hack.

Feasible: curated challenges, the team’s sprint for “doable” hacks. The curation process aims at connecting the patient challenges to the tech available in the ecosystem sponsoring and supporting the hackathon event. No ideation at this stage, but breaking down the patient challenges in “doable” bits, and possibly selecting challenges deemed possible to be met with tech kit available during hackathon (e.g. data sets, computation, hardware, etc.) provided by supporting partners

Supported: Ideation occurs at the hackathon. Participants are mentored and supported during the hackathon (e.g. by facilitators, tech experts).

Visibility and Continuity: the patient challenges will be presented at the DayOne Conference and worked on during the Open Innovation Sessions. Teams are encouraged to continue projects after the hackathon.

The event will be a purpose-driven “aspirational Hackathon”: the participants are called to “do good, feel good”, rather than seek a financial reward. Patient-centricity is key: patient groups and caregivers are called to help define challenges, to be present during the hackathon, and “own” their challenges providing inspiration and feedback to participants.

The principle of creativity and collaboration requires an underlying alignment with the purpose of the event and trust. It can be facilitated by taking inspiration from open source/hardware movements and releasing IP constraints so that new ideas can be generated. A priori ownership of results by sponsors is excluded.

In order to increase potential impact, the aim is to use relevant and scalable industrial-grade technologies and data sets. To inspire and energize, as well as to manage expectations of the participants, the challenges should be feasible by the teams sprinting during a two-week hackathon and will therefore be curated by experts together with the patients prior to the event in order to ensure realistically addressable hack projects.

Finally, while many teams will simply disband, it is important to enabling visibility and continuity for selected results that could find a home in an existing organization and its projects, be further developed as an online patient community project, or even incorporated as a start-up company.

Initiated and operated by Basel Area Business & Innovation, the DayOne Health Hack 2022 engages the community and ecosystem in the organization of the hackathon. This is realized by a series of workshops and activities, some of which require iteration. Here is the 2022 journey at a glance. Join us for the upcoming events, make sure to sign up for the newsletter so you can be in the know, and learn about the key dates for 2022.

2022 Journey overview:

Registration process – until May 9th  

Kick off – 4th May  

Hackathon – 9-20th May 

Final pitch event – 20th May 

As an aspirational hackathon, the DayOne Health Hack supports patient communities and their caregivers to become “Health Hackers”, and to take the initiative to tackle their needs. The Patient champions will be joined by healthcare professionals and tech enthusiasts from the Swiss Innovation ecosystem to co-ideate feasible solutions to their challenges.

During two weeks, people with different abilities and skills will work together with patient champions and hack solutions to real patient needs.  

Each participant can define the amount of time available and the skills they can bring into a team.  

No matter if you are a patient, carer, clinician, researcher, developer, data scientist, UX/UI designer, marketing, insurance or payer expert. You are welcome to join the DayOne Health Hack.  

We believe that by having all stakeholders represented, the solutions will be richer and closer to implementation.  

With the launch of a patient-centric health hackathon, DayOne, an initiative managed by Basel Area Business & Innovation, aims to explore new ways to catalyze sustainable and cutting-edge health solutions. The DayOne Health Hack has the clear ambition to become the place to be for digital talents and creative doers who wish to make a difference in improving health outcomes for patients. Supported by the broad Swiss healthcare innovation ecosystem, this unique format will contribute to establishing an additional avenue to catalyze healthcare innovation, attracting world-class software engineers and developers to the field and delivering on the promise of a truly patient-centric approach.

While user-centric approaches are now the norm in various industries, patients so far have rarely been directly involved at the starting point of the healthcare innovation process. It is now increasingly recognized by the healthcare industry that this will have to change by adopting more and more patient-centric approaches. As a neutral platform, the DayOne Health Hack presents itself as an ideal playground to seriously explore this new frontier in healthcare innovation.

Digital capabilities are a major healthcare innovation enabler, and a disruptor as well. World-wide key healthcare stakeholders such as global pharma companies are engaged in digital transformations. However, software developers and savey digital talents are global nomads and a scarce resource. They command high pay, are delocalized, and can choose projects and employers in many cases. Engaging digital developers and attracting them to the healthcare space is a key endeavor for success. By proposing to co-create tangible solutions for real-world patient needs, the DayOne Health Hack offers an appealing opportunity for digital talent to prove their skills in the broad field of healthcare innovation.

In spite of the large number of health hackathons that have taken place to date, astonishingly there seems to be a lack of truly patient-centric approaches in most of them. Many hackathons build on technology in a mostly corporate environment. For many participants, especially the most talented ones who are not after the next better job, such formats are a turn-off. In contrast, an aspirational hackathon is a much more appropriate fit to attract purpose-oriented digital talent.

We have been reaching out to patient communities to identify concrete challenges related to real-world needs as well as recruiting patients to act as their owners. The patient champions, patient challenges, and their context have been collected.  Stay tuned for when we define the patient challenges that will be hacked. These will be posted on the site.

The goal is to identify the core technology enablers (connectivity, software, hardware, power, data-sets, venue infrastructure…) available in the ecosystem that is relevant for the challenges and possible gaps. Issues such as security, data anonymization, but also attractive points for developers which can be offered need to be addressed. Technology experts, mentors, and facilitators need to be identified.

The hackathon will start with a kick off on Wednesday May 4th . During this kick-off, you will be introduced to the patient challenges, the platform and will be helped to join a team.  

From May 9 – 19th, the teams will collaborate and work together to create their solutions. No matter if you can dedicate 2h or 20h, you are welcome to join a team and contribute in the co-creation process.  

During this phase, there will be exciting webinars, expert sessions and networking in the platform, where you can continue learning and exchanging knowledge with your peers.  

On May 20th, the finalist teams will present their solutions on a demo event. Everyone is welcome to join and vote for your favorite solution as the winner of the Health Hack! 

While many teams will simply disband, it is important to ensure continuity for the results which could find a home in an existing organization and its ongoing projects, online patient community projects, or even a start-up company. DayOne one will further facilitate support for the projects in close collaboration with stakeholders of Switzerland’s innovation ecosystem.

Download our Terms and Conditions right here.