WUHC’s Healthcare Hackathon is a week-long pitch competition geared towards high school students to work together to develop tangible solutions to some of the most pressing issues in healthcare.
What is a ‘Healthcare Hackathon’?
A ‘hackathon’ is a portmanteau of ‘hack’ (by way of exploring novel solutions) and ‘marathon’ (for the intense atmosphere over a sustained period of time). The conventional hackathon typically lasts between 24-72 hours and often results in the development of functioning software or prototypes.
However, our Healthcare Hackathon is more of an ‘ideathon’ - participants create and refine new ideas, but neither websites nor apps are needed to submit a project. Thus, no prior coding or programming experience is required!
What should we expect?
Each year, WUHC invites high schoolers around the United States to address an important theme in healthcare. Given a scenario, students will be tasked with working together in teams of 1-4 to brainstorm a novel solution and prepare a pitch outlining their idea, and the steps they would take to bring said idea to fruition.
Throughout the week, teams will have the opportunity to attend a variety of workshops, schedule personalized mentoring sessions, and access resources to help them further develop their ideas. Mentors will provide guidance and informed feedback on team proposals.
On the final day of the event, teams will present their ideas to a panel of judges consisting of Penn students, professors, and experts in the healthcare industry. Pitches will be evaluated based on students’ creativity, communication of their ideas, and connection to the chosen theme.
Past Seasons
The theme for our Spring 2024 iteration of the WUHC Healthcare Hackathon was 'Value-Based Payment and Revolutionizing Healthcare Financing,' in which we challenged participants to reimagine the payment landscape of healthcare, with emphasis on supporting the goals of value-based care, improved health outcomes, and enhanced efficiency.
Here are our event winners: