Employees from Vancouver Coastal Health (Employee Engagement) and one PHSA staff member recently participated in “Hacking Health Vancouver” to transform diabetes care in 28 hours and won a prestigious award!

What is Hacking Health?

Hacking Health is designed to improve healthcare by inviting technology creators and healthcare professionals to collaborate on solutions to real health-related problems. Small teams are formed and in just 28 hours they work on a technical solution to solve their chosen health care problem and finally, come together as a group in the last half hour for a mini presentation by each team.

Hacking diabetes with bio-data

Our team engaged with six other participants to hack diabetes by attaching a continuous glucose monitoring device to a credit-card-sized computer and continuously uploaded the data to the internet.  Next, they wrote applications to display this data on iPhones and via the web.  With hours to go, the team developed predictive analytics around the data – to predict and prevent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) and hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) before it occurred.  Finally, the team was able to automate text alerts and phone calls to notify emergency contacts of when their loved one might need help.

Award inspires team to pursue solution

After pitching their solution before an electrified crowd of 1500 at the e-Health 2014 Conference, the judges rewarded the VCH/PHSA team with the “eHealth Award for Advancement in Healthcare Technology.” Congratulations to our innovative staff at VCH, Kevin MacDuff, Jen Alexander, Darrell Ng, Wayne Hoy, Jacky Lui, Tim Orbasido, and Jessica Ho, for their creativity and problem-solving skills in hacking diabetes at last week’s event.

The team is now continuing to work collaboratively to pursue their idea and help those with diabetes better manage their blood sugar levels.

To learn more about Hacking Health Vancouver, visit the Hacking Health website.