By: Terry Hill, Executive Director, Rural Health Innovations
Last month I spoke at the first rural health care hackathon
ever held in the United States. “Hacking Rural Medicine” was sponsored by the
Frontier Medicine Better Health Partnership, a network of rural hospitals, and
was held on the campus of the University of Montana in Missoula, MT. The
concept of the “hackathon” comes from the technology industry, and consists of
bringing a diverse group of people together to brainstorm solutions to common
problems, to form new teams to pursue solutions, and ultimately to create
change and spread innovation. The leader responsible for coming up with the
idea and carrying out the implementation of the hackathon process, is Monica
Bourgeau, the Frontier Medicine Partnership’s Chief Operating Officer. She was intrigued by the
concept, appealed to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for
assistance, and then embarked on more than six months of planning to make it
happen. MIT was an enthusiastic partner throughout the process and contributed
students and other experts to help facilitate the event.
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| Terry Hill |
More than 150 participants registered for the Montana
hackathon, representing a diverse background and skill set from 15 states. Friday
evening was reserved for a full agenda of speakers, with presentations ranging
from five to fifteen minutes. I was one of the fortunate few given fifteen
minutes to set the rapidly evolving health care landscape. The basic message I
conveyed was that transformational change is taking place, moving the health
industry from volume- to value-based payment. Rural health providers must begin
now to find their place in the changing value-based health system. Other
speakers provided a similar message, and still others noted the strengths and
assets of rural America, and declared that innovation can be done quicker and
better in rural settings.
Saturday saw the participants discussing issues and problems
in an open space setting, and then break out into diverse teams to propose
solutions and plan action strategies to carry out the associated work. One
group, for example, worked on ideas and strategies to generate needed data for
population health management. One of the participants commented, “We can’t
expect miracles from a three day event, but we’re hoping that some IT innovator
will be able to develop a prototype solution to something we've all been
wrestling with for months. That’s how progress has come in this industry; one
person building on the ideas of another.” Another group, led by primary care
physicians, developed strategies to bring joy and meaning back to medicine and
other health care work. The idea was that besides the bad outcomes for patients
and their communities, health care providers have also fallen victim to a
health care system that has been stressful and often led to disillusionment.
Ideas ranged from education, to integrative health methods, to teamwork, and
mutual support and networking.
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| Hacking Rural Medicine Attendees |
The hackathon is organized like a competition between teams,
and on Sunday the nine teams that formed on Saturday presented their plans of
action. Judges assessed the innovation and practicality of each team’s proposal
and awarded 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place prizes. A crowd’s favorite award was made
as well. First place went to the group planning to build a more practical, accessible
rural health information database. Organizer, Monica Bourgeau, said the
competition was only one fun aspect of a more serious hackathon purpose, “We’re
hoping that besides the innovative ideas and action strategies, one of the
outcomes of this event will be to begin partnerships and personal connections
that will live and produce results long after the event…That’s what’s really
exciting to me.”
My own observation is that this Hackathon provides an
excellent model of how to bring community stakeholders together to solve urgent
rural health problems. Already similar events are being planned in three other
states, and it may be something individual rural community hospitals might want
to contemplate as well. One of the primary challenges rural hospitals face
today is how to most effectively work with their communities and other health
providers in their service area. The need is crucial, partially to maximize the
use of available hospital services, but also because in a value-based reimbursement
system, providers will also be responsible for services outside of their
hospitals. And, with the rural hospitals being challenged more than ever
before, it’s an ideal time to seek partners, collaborators and innovators from
nontraditional sources. The old adage, “All of us” are a lot smarter than any
one of us” has never been truer.
For more information about the Hackathon, contact Terry at thill@ruralcenter.org or go to the Hacking Rural Medicine website.
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