Hack the Nest

The Hack the Nest winning team with judge Ralph Johnson (far right).

Hack the Nest, the DC, Maryland, Virginia (DMV) area's largest high school hackathon, was held on December 9-10 in Sterling, Virginia. HealMate Pro won the $500 prize for the best patient safety project, sponsored by the Patient Safety Technology Challenge with funding from the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative. 

The team was inspired by the workshop on patient safety presented by Ralph Johnson, who also served as the event’s mentor and judge. Johnson is the Vice President of Informatics and Technology at The Leapfrog Group and serves on the Patient Safety Technology Challenge’s Advisory Board. Johnson said it was a wonderful experience, and he especially “enjoyed the energy” at the event.

HealMate Pro aims to help monitor patients at the bedside by tracking patient movements to visualize and report potential issues in real time. The team chose to focus on patients that suffer from sporadic behavior while unconscious, specifically tailored to monitor patients with epilepsy. They created a motion tracker for patient movements which are visualized in real time and can be accessed remotely.

The Patient Safety Technology Challenge is excited to engage with high school student and inspire the next generation of innovators.