COVID-19 has changed the way we live, work and play faster than any other recent event. In order to tackle this pandemic head-on, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is focusing its resources, people, and technology on finding solutions and workarounds to help the patients, individuals, and institutions fighting this pandemic.
MIT is known for innovation. With 96 Nobel laureates and 58 National Medal of Science recipients, MIT has been at the forefront of science and technology since its foundation. Brightidea and MIT have partnered to provide a platform for medical professionals, scientists, engineers, and patients to collaborate and hack the biggest issue facing healthcare today. The scope of this crisis has not been seen in a century and the ideas to battle it has to be equally grand in proportion. That is why MIT is looking for ideas that cross disciplines, apply across geographies, and impact all stakeholders.
“We want you to join our army of hackers and clinical experts to identify the most critical problems and shortages and crowdsource the best solutions for each geography and health system capability.”
MIT’s #HackCOVID19 initiative gives “health hackers” an online forum to submit, discuss, and vote on ideas in one centralized location. We know that no one individual has all the pieces of the puzzle but collectively we are able to put it together. In the same direction, we know no one person or organization can tackle this head-on. We need to tap the creative potential of all of humanity, through remote collaboration to fight this crisis, both in helping to find the big breakthroughs as well as the many incremental ideas that can add up to real change.
The #HackCOVID19 community is a great opportunity to generate creative ideas during this time through remote collaboration. The health crisis has demonstrated how, we as a global community, can come together to and aid those who need help. The ad hoc deliveries of food to the elderly, the informal supply chains making masks for nurses, and the surprising innovators that are 3D printing medical device parts are keeping those on the front lines productive in this time of isolation. MIT’s “health hackers” are another example of how we can come together to fight this pandemic.
