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Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study
BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the lives of millions of people by causing a dramatic impact on many health care systems and the global economy. This devastating pandemic has brought together communities across the globe to work on this issue in an unprecedented manner. OBJECTIVE: Thi...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
JMIR Publications
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7872325/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33497350 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/25283 |
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author | Braune, Katarina Rojas, Pablo-David Hofferbert, Joscha Valera Sosa, Alvaro Lebedev, Anastasiya Balzer, Felix Thun, Sylvia Lieber, Sascha Kirchberger, Valerie Poncette, Akira-Sebastian |
author_facet | Braune, Katarina Rojas, Pablo-David Hofferbert, Joscha Valera Sosa, Alvaro Lebedev, Anastasiya Balzer, Felix Thun, Sylvia Lieber, Sascha Kirchberger, Valerie Poncette, Akira-Sebastian |
author_sort | Braune, Katarina |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the lives of millions of people by causing a dramatic impact on many health care systems and the global economy. This devastating pandemic has brought together communities across the globe to work on this issue in an unprecedented manner. OBJECTIVE: This case study describes the steps and methods employed in the conduction of a remote online health hackathon centered on challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to deliver a clear implementation road map for other organizations to follow. METHODS: This 4-day hackathon was conducted in April 2020, based on six COVID-19–related challenges defined by frontline clinicians and researchers from various disciplines. An online survey was structured to assess: (1) individual experience satisfaction, (2) level of interprofessional skills exchange, (3) maturity of the projects realized, and (4) overall quality of the event. At the end of the event, participants were invited to take part in an online survey with 17 (+5 optional) items, including multiple-choice and open-ended questions that assessed their experience regarding the remote nature of the event and their individual project, interprofessional skills exchange, and their confidence in working on a digital health project before and after the hackathon. Mentors, who guided the participants through the event, also provided feedback to the organizers through an online survey. RESULTS: A total of 48 participants and 52 mentors based in 8 different countries participated and developed 14 projects. A total of 75 mentorship video sessions were held. Participants reported increased confidence in starting a digital health venture or a research project after successfully participating in the hackathon, and stated that they were likely to continue working on their projects. Of the participants who provided feedback, 60% (n=18) would not have started their project without this particular hackathon and indicated that the hackathon encouraged and enabled them to progress faster, for example, by building interdisciplinary teams, gaining new insights and feedback provided by their mentors, and creating a functional prototype. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insights into how online hackathons can contribute to solving the challenges and effects of a pandemic in several regions of the world. The online format fosters team diversity, increases cross-regional collaboration, and can be executed much faster and at lower costs compared to in-person events. Results on preparation, organization, and evaluation of this online hackathon are useful for other institutions and initiatives that are willing to introduce similar event formats in the fight against COVID-19. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7872325 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | JMIR Publications |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-78723252021-02-22 Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study Braune, Katarina Rojas, Pablo-David Hofferbert, Joscha Valera Sosa, Alvaro Lebedev, Anastasiya Balzer, Felix Thun, Sylvia Lieber, Sascha Kirchberger, Valerie Poncette, Akira-Sebastian J Med Internet Res Original Paper BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the lives of millions of people by causing a dramatic impact on many health care systems and the global economy. This devastating pandemic has brought together communities across the globe to work on this issue in an unprecedented manner. OBJECTIVE: This case study describes the steps and methods employed in the conduction of a remote online health hackathon centered on challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to deliver a clear implementation road map for other organizations to follow. METHODS: This 4-day hackathon was conducted in April 2020, based on six COVID-19–related challenges defined by frontline clinicians and researchers from various disciplines. An online survey was structured to assess: (1) individual experience satisfaction, (2) level of interprofessional skills exchange, (3) maturity of the projects realized, and (4) overall quality of the event. At the end of the event, participants were invited to take part in an online survey with 17 (+5 optional) items, including multiple-choice and open-ended questions that assessed their experience regarding the remote nature of the event and their individual project, interprofessional skills exchange, and their confidence in working on a digital health project before and after the hackathon. Mentors, who guided the participants through the event, also provided feedback to the organizers through an online survey. RESULTS: A total of 48 participants and 52 mentors based in 8 different countries participated and developed 14 projects. A total of 75 mentorship video sessions were held. Participants reported increased confidence in starting a digital health venture or a research project after successfully participating in the hackathon, and stated that they were likely to continue working on their projects. Of the participants who provided feedback, 60% (n=18) would not have started their project without this particular hackathon and indicated that the hackathon encouraged and enabled them to progress faster, for example, by building interdisciplinary teams, gaining new insights and feedback provided by their mentors, and creating a functional prototype. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides insights into how online hackathons can contribute to solving the challenges and effects of a pandemic in several regions of the world. The online format fosters team diversity, increases cross-regional collaboration, and can be executed much faster and at lower costs compared to in-person events. Results on preparation, organization, and evaluation of this online hackathon are useful for other institutions and initiatives that are willing to introduce similar event formats in the fight against COVID-19. JMIR Publications 2021-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC7872325/ /pubmed/33497350 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/25283 Text en ©Katarina Braune, Pablo-David Rojas, Joscha Hofferbert, Alvaro Valera Sosa, Anastasiya Lebedev, Felix Balzer, Sylvia Thun, Sascha Lieber, Valerie Kirchberger, Akira-Sebastian Poncette. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 08.02.2021. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, first published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is properly cited. The complete bibliographic information, a link to the original publication on http://www.jmir.org/, as well as this copyright and license information must be included. |
spellingShingle | Original Paper Braune, Katarina Rojas, Pablo-David Hofferbert, Joscha Valera Sosa, Alvaro Lebedev, Anastasiya Balzer, Felix Thun, Sylvia Lieber, Sascha Kirchberger, Valerie Poncette, Akira-Sebastian Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study |
title | Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study |
title_full | Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study |
title_fullStr | Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study |
title_full_unstemmed | Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study |
title_short | Interdisciplinary Online Hackathons as an Approach to Combat the COVID-19 Pandemic: Case Study |
title_sort | interdisciplinary online hackathons as an approach to combat the covid-19 pandemic: case study |
topic | Original Paper |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7872325/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33497350 http://dx.doi.org/10.2196/25283 |
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