Health IT, Hospitals, Policy, Startups

Code-a-thon spurs ideas to close digital divide: Reducing ER overuse (video)

CareLink.me uses a geo-location communication platform that connects people who overuse emergency services with their primary care providers.

A healthcare code-a-thon sought to develop ways that healthcare IT can be used to better support underserved populations in the San Francisco region. Among the prizewinning entries was CareLink.me, a group that came in second place who devised a way to identify those who overuse emergency rooms and provide them alternative access to care. The winners were announced at the Health Technology Forum Innovation Conference.

CareLink.me uses a geo-location communication platform that connects people who overuse emergency services with their primary care providers. It provides the service through an app, since it maintains that homeless are likely to have mobile phones. Its team was the largest by far with seven members that represented a mix of coders, physicians, physicians-in-training and developers.

Health Technology Forum founder Pronoy Saha organized the event. Dr. Jan Gurley, a physician based in San Francisco who helped organize the event, told MedCity News it approached universities, technology forums and related websites. About 190 developers, coders, hackers physicians and students joined forces to develop different ways to accomplish that people showed up for the Code-a-thon and organized themselves into 15 teams. Working through the weekend they presented pitches to a team of seven judges.

Although its focus is the San Francisco region, the ideas generated by the competition have national relevance and could help address public health paint points across the country.

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