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Each year MEDHOST hosts an innovation event inviting all associates from across the organization to team up, design, and develop new products or processes in an intensive, agile-style development workshop culminating with a sales pitch to executives for consideration.
Whether creating brand-new solutions to meet customer needs, features to optimize current offerings, or processes that enhance internal MEDHOST operations, MEDHOST Hackathon promotes employee engagement that drives product development, employee growth, and knowledge sharing across departments. Among other prizes and recognition, the winning team utilizes paid time to step away from their assigned responsibilities to finalize the development and packaging of their solution.
Like years past, the MEDHOST 2021 Hackathon did not disappoint.
Twelve teams made up of individuals with varying backgrounds and skillsets came together with an idea for innovation. Software developers traditionally make up hackathon participants, but nearly 50% of contributors came from areas outside of product development this year.
Each team of two to four members submitted a project idea before the event. With approval, team members stepped out of their daily responsibilities for four days to develop a working prototype, generate a return-on-investment financial impact analysis, and create a sales pitch to be delivered to a panel of judges.
All twelve teams demonstrated a vast knowledge of MEDHOST culture, systems, and customer needs. After the conclusion of each eight-minute presentation, Q&A time was allowed for the judges to ask questions. Then, teams enjoyed a celebration lunch together while the judges conferred in private to select a winner.
Judging the teams were MEDHOST senior leaders:
With all the scores tallied, MediCloud emerged as the overall victor. Team MediCloud consisted of Joshua Shaver, Ajay Boolchandani, Ryan Cook, and Abhishek Arohi.
MediCloud's winning submission proposed moving the Medi-Span application to the cloud. By placing this vital system in a cloud environment for each customer, MEDHOST could increase the reliability of the overall solution and cut down on costs.
There were also four runners-up:
This year, a special award for process improvement went to STARgazer - Cody Worf, Ricky Crabtree, and Jennifer Parrott.
A big thank you to everyone who helped make Hackathon 2021 a smashing success. We are truly grateful to have a team of so many individuals who share our passion for improving care and helping MEDHOST offer an even greater value to our employees and healthcare partners.
Till next year!
MEDHOST completed its second annual Hackathon in November 2020.
Fifteen cross-functional teams competed by taking a product or service idea from conception to prototype in three days. This year’s theme was again about creating customer value through existing product enhancements and new product development. Other Hackathon concepts focused on improving internal processes and/or efficiencies which ultimately benefit our customers as these improvements enable us to continually serve our customers in a more efficient way and enhance the quality of our services.
As in Hackathon 2019, Hackathon 2020 teams were encouraged to be cross-functional with over 50 percent of participants from areas outside product development. Increased participation by customer-facing associates not only enhanced the Hackathon results, but also provided other associates better insight into customer needs.
The winning team automated the creation and secure transmission of electronic billing files to eliminate multiple manual steps and the use of a third-party software such as IBM i Access Client Solutions. This solution engaged multiple customers eager to beta the solution. Additionally, the Hackathon 2020 saw an array of new product ideas built on a mobile and voice-based platform to enhance patient care efficiency. Noteworthy projects in the new product theme included building a lightweight mobile app to display patient care critical information, creating an AI-powered chatbot, designing a mobile app for clinicians to collect and check-in laboratory specimens, and creating an integrated scanning solution focused on consolidating existing scanning products. Multiple customer-benefiting ideas from Hackathon 2020 are moving to the development phase.
Hackathon 2020 was a success on multiple levels. It further unified us as a customer-centric organization, promoted cross-pollination of ideas and talent, and strengthened our product vision. We envision refining and adapting many of these ideas into future MEDHOST products and thus continue our journey to deliver quality products to support our customers’ ultimate goal — providing excellent care to their patients.
Want to learn more about Hackathon 2019 highlights, read MEDHOST blog “Promoting a Culture of Innovation at MEDHOST”.
