Project Challenges
Access to Care With
Winner of Access to Care
Your team will have the opportunity to spend half a day with the Managing Director of BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners, John Banta, or a similar level partner. The purpose of this opportunity is to learn how to take your winning hackathon idea to the market.
Track Description
Blue Cross Blue Shield believes that very often, your zip code is a greater determinant of your health than your genetic code. If you live in an area where accessing necessary care is hard or even impossible, your health will reflect that. In an attempt to eliminate the social and regional determinants from one’s health, Blue Cross Blue Shield has made many strategic moves including a partnership with Lyft to help patients get to their necessary appointments.
And now, Blue Cross Blue Shield challenges you - the hackers of MedHacks 2017 - to come up with your own solutions the problem of accessing care. Several Blue Cross Blue Shield members, including Teresa Clark, featured in the video above, will be present at MedHacks to help you along the way.
Medication Adherence With
Winner of Medication Adherence
Your team will have amazing career prep from CVS. This will include mentoring from a Manager (matched to the students interest) and a resume review session with as Sr. Consultant or higher within CVS Health. Additionally, winners will each receive a FitBit Alta.
Track Description
1 in 2 Americans has a chronic condition such as Diabetes or Asthma and will face 5x the healthcare costs of someone who doesn’t. One of the best ways to help patients manage their health and keep costs in line is to effectively treat and manage their chronic conditions including managing their prescribed medication regimen. Yes 25% of patients who are a prescribed a medication never pick up the first fill and among those who do, 50% will stop taking the medication within the first year. This leads to more hospital admissions, poor health, and adverse events like heart attacks. CVS is committed to helping patients solve this challenge.
The causes of non-adherence are varied and specific to patients’ circumstances. Some patients may be forgetful and skip doses or neglect to order/pick up refills; others may not realize what health benefit their medications will drive; some may struggle with cost concerns or have so many medications that they find it difficult to keep track of them all.
In each of these areas CVS Health has existing programs that make tremendous progress towards improving medication adherence, but the issue of poor medication adherence persists. CVS Health wants your help in ideating and developing new programs and services to solve the adherence challenge and keep patients on their path to better health.
Patient Safety and Quality With
Winner of Patient Safety and Quality
Your team will have an amazing chance to work with the Armstrong Institute to develop the project after the completion of MedHacks. Members will also have formal specialized advisory meetings with several JHU departments including: the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Carey Business School, and Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare.
Track Description
The Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality is proud to sponsor a special Safety and Quality track within MedHacks this year.
The Armstrong Institute's goal is to eliminate preventable harm to patients and to achieve the best patient outcomes at the lowest cost possible, and then to share knowledge of how to achieve this goal with the world.
Help us reach this goal by participating in this special track within MedHacks. The three focus areas that are being highlighted in this track this year include:
- Enhancing Patient Experience
- Improving Healthcare Productivity
- Decreasing Healthcare Costs
Below are some quick videos to understand more about the Armstrong Institute:
