Code-a-Thon Overview

“Home Team had a great weekend at MIT’s Hacking Medicine 2011. We’ve been working on a physical therapy video game for several months, and this was our most productive weekend to date. We recruited four new team members and hacked our next-gen prototype in 24 hours. We’ll definitely be at future Health 2.0 conferences looking for talented developers and innovative health IT professionals!”

-Tim Fu, CEO and Founder Home Team Therapy

Health 2.0 Developer Challenge Code-a-thon

Health 2.0′s “Code-a-Thons” are live events that occur over the course of one or more days, bringing together developers, designers, innovators and entrepreneurs to build exciting new applications and tools for improved health care.  Code-a-Thons typically attract more than 100 technologists and an array of sponsors interested in engaging this amazing audience.  These short and focused events result in the rapid development of interesting concepts and working prototype applications that can be developed further by the participating teams.

Code-a-thons generally begin with an overview session in which Health 2.0 lays out the agenda for the day and introduces the session’s sponsors.  The sponsors will frequently throw out targeted mini-challenges to the participants with the purpose of guiding the day’s development activity.  Teams are then encouraged to self-form and self-manage as they work together to develop their solutions.  At the end of the day, developers present their application to the group, and prizes are awarded for the best solutions.

Throughout the day participants are able to attend short talks from sponsors and invited speakers about interesting issues related to health care and technology.  Sponsors will often use this time to go into more depth about their data sets, APIs, and other technologies.

For participants Code-a-Thons are a great way to meet like-minded innovators with whom they can connect to work on challenging problems.  Code-a-Thons are also a great way for participants to sharpen their skills and develop new ones.  For sponsors Code-a-Thons present a great way to quickly develop new apps and discover new talent.  Many interesting development projects have been initiated at Health 2.0′s Code-a-Thon events.