Last weekend, Datavant hosted a Pandemic Response Hackathon. We were thrilled by the energy around the event: we hosted more than 2,000 participants, 230 submissions, and 30 sponsoring organizations. We are excited to share some of the results, and to continue supporting the teams implementing their ideas.

Motivation: There are thousands of technology companies and engineers asking “how can I contribute to solving this crisis.” Meanwhile, there are important needs on a local, national, and global level that can be improved by technology: technology to improve public health information sharing, technology to keep our health workers safe, tools to better understand the epidemiology and science of the disease, and technology to address the second-order societal impacts of a socially-distanced world.

As a healthcare technology company, we felt that we could connect technologists seeking to make an impact with public health experts, doctors, and healthcare organizations to inspire building projects that matter.

Thank you’s

The event would not have been possible without the support of our steering committee, co-hosts, and the thousands of participants.

Steering committee & judges: David Shulkin (Former Secretary of Veterans Affairs), Tom Daschle (Former Senate Majority Leader), Don Berwick (Former Administator of CMS), Andrew von Eschenbach (Former Commissioner of FDA), Tom Leppert (Former Mayor of Dallas), Ed Simcox (Former CTO of HHS), Peter Neupert (Healthcare Technology Leader), and Priyanka Surio (Director of Informatics, ASTHO)

Co-hosts/sponsors: US Department of Health and Human Services (ONC), the American Public Health Association, the American Heart Association, AWS, Snowflake, Komodo Health, Prognos, NextGate, Kinsa, ClosedLoop.ai, Matter, Immuta, MapBox, AnalyticsIQ, LiveRamp, Binc, Moxe, Starschema, MedicineX, Medable, Veraset, Redox, CommonHealth, Definitive Healthcare, Parexel, Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), Advancement League, National Consortium of Telehealth Resource Centers, Public Democracy, Adara, Validic.

Spotlighted Projects

This is a snapshot of the 230+ submissions from the event.

Track 1: Public Health Information Sharing

• Cov2words. A chatbot based hotline that advises you whether to get tested for COVID-19, reducing time medical professionals must spend on the phone
• CoronaRank. Uses location data to create a heatmap of infected areas and then calculate the riskiness of a particular area
• C-19 Vulnerability Index — Powered by ClosedLoop.ai. Uses machine learning to produce a vulnerability score for adults
• Flatten-App. App to track contact and identify chains of transmission
• hc1 COVID-19 Lab Testing Dashboard™. A dashboard that shows lab testing results for COVID-19 from around the country.

Track 2: Epidemiology and Science of Disease Track

• COVID-19 Drug Demand and Supply Curves. Uses Komodo Health’s existing data sources to predict what drugs will be in short supply in different locations around the US.
• ContainIt. Contact tracing app that notifies individuals if they’ve crossed paths with someone who tests positive for COVID-19
• Pandemic Spread Simulator — PaSS. Models human behavior to show why sheltering in place is critical.

Track 3: Keeping Our Health Workers Safe Track

• Airspar Inflatable Field Hospital. Design for an inflatable negative pressure tent that can be used to quickly scale up hospital bed capacity
• COVIDStay. A platform to connect frontline healthcare professionals to temporary accommodations while quarantining or socially isolating.
• Frontline Covid Backtracer. Tool for hospital administration to trace back frontline staff who may have been infected.
• Infection Exposure Tracker. Interface to track patient-clinician and clinician-clinician exposure and spread in hospitals
• Reuze. A guide to sanitizing PPE for front-line providers

Track 4: Second-Order Societal Impacts Track

• Isolating Together. A website that lists and encourages positive behaviors while socially isolating
• MyBubble. An app to gamify and encourage social distancing
• Pandemic Volunteers. Website to match volunteers with projects, with social recognition built in for frequent volunteers
• Voice Over Virus. A platform and social media campaign to share stories about the impact of COVID-19 and reduce the stigma of the illness
• WhatsInStock. Map that displays what is in stock at nearby grocery stores, minimizing the total number of trips a user needs to take

Next Steps

Our goal is for as many useful projects as possible to come out of the hackathon, and ultimately support the response to the pandemic. We will continue to mentor all projects that move forward, and support teams that participated. The silver lining of a crisis is the way in which people come together and rally to solve it, and we are excited to support technologists innovating to help find solutions.