Hacking Health Cafe – Hamilton #1
On October 22, 2013, the first Hacking Health Cafe Hamilton was held at the spacious McMaster Innovation Park - Innovation Factory in Hamilton, Ontario. Healthcare professionals, developers, designers, and others from across Hamilton and the GTA interested in how technology can be used to improve healthcare attended the Cafe to talk and exchange experiences and listen to two guest speakers talk about their work in this emerging field.
The first speaker, Dr. Michael Pray, a family doctor, associate lead physician for IT at the Hamilton Family Health Team and Peer to Peer Leader at OntarioMD, talked about his experience working with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and the potential in using mobile devices to access patient information. He also talked about the role of provincial and federal governments in initiating and fostering—and sometimes hindering—innovation in healthcare.
Meanwhile, the second speaker, Duane Bender, a software engineer, enterprise technology architect and instructor at Mohawk College, talked about his work at MEDIC, which stands for Mohawk eHealth Development and Innovation Centre. MEDIC enables IT integration, innovation and commercialization in the healthcare sector. Mr. Bender talked about the successful Apps for Health program and how the Canadian healthcare system was poised to make great strides
In all, the first Hacking Health Cafe Hamilton was quite successful. The two speakers introduced attendees to the broader world of technology and healthcare, inspiring the crowd to consider in their projects the less tangible but no less important areas of government policies and patient experience and health outcomes. The lively crowd of around 50 talked amongst themselves before and after the event, sharing stories and networking over pizza and drinks.
As the Hacking Health movement expands across the country and around the globe, Hamilton is an ideal location to further the movement with its institutions of higher education, health and medical centres, and burgeoning community of developers, designers, and entrepreneurs.
The inaugural Hacking Health Cafe Hamilton was sponsored by Hamilton Economic Development and the McMaster eHealth Graduate Program. Hamilton Economic Development produced a video showcasing highlights from the Cafe.
David Kemper
on behalf of the HH Hamilton Team