An Extended Hackathon Model for Collaborative Education in Medical Innovation

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering Education
• Healthcare Innovation Training
• Medical Device Development

Background:

• Current medical innovation education is limited to traditional, long-term university courses and fellowships.
• This limits accessibility for a broad range of students and early-career professionals.
• There is a need for more accessible and widely adoptable training models in medical innovation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the structure and preliminary outcomes of a 1-2 week "extended hackathon" course.
• To assess the accessibility and adoptability of this model for academic medical centers.
• To evaluate the impact of the extended hackathon on participants' medical innovation knowledge.

Main Methods:

• Eight extended hackathons were conducted in five international locations, involving 245 participants.
• Participants represented diverse educational backgrounds and professional expertise.
• Pre- and post-hackathon surveys assessed self-perceived knowledge in ten medical innovation categories.

Main Results:

• Participants reported a significant average increase of 114.1% in medical innovation knowledge (n=161).
• Knowledge gains were observed across all ten assessed categories.
• The extended hackathon model proved effective in enhancing foundational medical innovation skillsets.

Conclusions:

• The extended hackathon is a viable and effective educational model for medical innovation.
• This model significantly increases accessibility to foundational medical innovation training.
• Further research requires standardized assessments and larger participant samples to robustly evaluate educational value.