Hacking Rehab

Spaulding hosts innovation competition

Image: iStock

Image: iStock

Sometimes solving complex problems just requires a change of perspective.

David Binder, Harvard Medical School instructor in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Spaulding Hospital, tries to look at the challenges of rehab medicine through the lens of the culture of business innovation.

“Working in Boston allows us to connect to industry leaders at MIT and the region’s bio tech start ups who have fostered this idea of using a ‘hack’ to solve problems great and small,” said Binder, who also serves as the director of innovation for the Department of PM&R at Spaulding.

A hack is an event where individuals of varied expertise and interests gather to find creative solutions to problems, often using a surprising combination of technological and entrepreneurial approaches. In these focused, brief events, participants pitch ideas for problems they want to solve, form teams with other participants who share an interest in the problem, or who have technical skills that might lend themselves to a solution, and come up with proposals for solutions. Sometimes these hackathons include judges and prizes, awarding seed money or technical support to the teams with the best pitches.

Based on his experience at various hacking events, Binder approached the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPMR) to create a ‘Rehab Hack’ as part of the annual conference in September in Boston. The AAPMR enthusiastically embraced the opportunity for this first of its kind event, called the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Hackathon: Hacking Rehabilitation.

The Spaulding Hackathon, hosted in collaboration with MIT Hacking Medicine and AAPMR, will be a day and a half event that focuses on the development of creative and innovative solutions specifically for rehabilitation medicine challenges. Presented by the Harvard Medical School Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Spaulding, this will be the first hackathon event to bring clinicians, engineers, designers, programmers, and entrepreneurs together to tackle clinical and healthcare related problems specific to rehabilitative medicine.

The leading teams will have access to prizes that help promote further development of their ideas and solutions, including a three-month membership at the Cambridge Innovation Center Incubator and a design consultation from MadPow.

Winning teams will also be highlighted and introduced at the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation National conference on October 3.

“Resources like these along with the invaluable networking and collaboration are going to be what really helps an idea or solution get off the ground,” Binder said. All Spaulding Hackathon participants are eligible for the Microsoft BizSpark program, which provides free software and cloud services for 3 years courtesy of Microsoft.

“Joining together a variety of smart and motivated individuals will allow us to bring some real challenges forward and incubate solutions that will benefit not only physicians but more importantly the patients we serve,” Binder said.

The Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital Hackathon will take place September 25 and 26 at the Cambridge Innovation Center.

Register by Wednesday September 23 at 11:59 pm or follow and offer ideas with #SpauldingHackathon.

Adapted from a Spaulding Hospital news release.