HealthTech Arkansas joined with Cartwheel Startup Studio, the University of Arkansas, and Startup Junkie to administer the Digital Health Challenge in Bentonville, Arkansas April 1-3, 2022. Nine teams representing individuals from seven states competed in the challenge.
Five current challenges faced by Arkansas Children’s that lend themselves to software solutions were presented to hackathon teams. Following the presentations and a robust Q&A session, each team chose the challenge they wanted to tackle over the course of the weekend. After final presentations on Sunday, a highly experienced judging panel chose the winning team: Tulsa’s OK. The team won the grand prize of $10,000, sponsored by Startup Junkie. But even better, six of the nine teams were chosen to continue conversations with Arkansas Children’s for the development and potential piloting of their software solutions.
“The commitment by Arkansas Children’s to the hackathon was extraordinary and was the primary driver of the event’s success,” said Jeff Stinson, director of HealthTech Arkansas. “Not only did they spend considerable time prior to the event developing and vetting challenges to be presented, but they committed significant numbers of subject matter experts and end-users for customer discovery interviews and mentoring during the course of the weekend.”
"Bringing talented people together to build, test and implement software solutions to improve care provided by Arkansas Children’s was the goal for the hackathon,” said Barry Brady, COO, Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. “Matching Arkansas Children’s subject matter experts with creative developers and engineers to collaborate on developing pediatric health solutions was a great experience for all groups who participated in the event. The dedication and collaboration of everyone involved was exciting to see.”
“We believe this model can be highly impactful for driving healthcare innovation and creating startup companies,” continued Stinson. “First, we’re starting with real problems faced by our health systems and deploying very talented teams for solution development. And second, we’ve created an ideal collaboration with our friends at Cartwheel Startup Studio, who have a proven methodology and infrastructure for startup creation, which clearly has strong potential for Northwest Arkansas economic development.”
