Korean mobile communications giant Samsung Electronics, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital recently announced the winners of a hackathon meant to spur innovation with wearables suited for healthcare.
Out of 21 teams of engineers, five winners were selected by a panel of 10 judges. The winners divided a $6,000 prize and are now eligible for a portion of a much bigger, $500,000 Samsung Healthcare Innovation Grant, officials said in a release.
The winners are:
— 1st Place, $1,250: ETHER – Allows the operating room manager to receive real time data from anesthesia providers who can send status updates right from their wrist
— 2nd Place, $1,000: Clean – Provides compliance tracking for hospital-acquired infection protocols by discovering when health care workers enter patient rooms and combines that with data from smart sanitizing stations
— 3rd Place, $750: Migraine Trackz – Gives migraine sufferers the ability to identify triggers through data collected by personal and environmental sensors on the Samsung Gear S
— Samsung Favorite, $1,000: FitFriend – Using the Gear S, FitFriend provides a fun, interactive digital character that reminds kids to keep moving and make healthier food choices
— Mass General Favorite, $1,000: CADI – Access patient files and information faster and more accurately through a voice-activated electronic health record
— Crowd Favorite, $1,000: ETHER (same as first place).
The Innovation Challenge kicked off on November 7th with keynote presentations by three industry leaders: Samsung Senior Vice President Peter Koo; Dr. David Ting, chief medical information officer of MGH; and MIT Hacking Medicine Co-Founder Zen Chu.
Samsung provided participants with the Samsung Gear S, Galaxy Note 4 and engineering mentors to support teams.
The use of wearables across healthcare remains one of the most promising, yet sill unrealized areas for much of the industry, according to a recent report from PwC.
