iHackHealth Appathon
The iHackHealth Appathon is a collaboration between UCSF and UC Berkeley, bringing together UCSF researchers and UC Berkeley engineering students to develop innovative iOS applications that improve health, research, and patient care. Participants submit project proposals, form multidisciplinary teams, and create prototype apps with mentorship from industry experts. The event culminates in presentations to a panel of judges from the health tech industry, venture capital, and academia.
Since 2019, UC San Francisco (UCSF) and UC Berkeley have teamed up to create, facilitate, and host the iHackHealth Appathon!
- Have you ever had an idea for a mobile app that could improve research, clinical practice, patient care, or simply make life easier?
- Have ever wanted to work on an idea and turn it into a mobile app that could improve health, research, or patient care?
If you answered 'Yes!' to either of these questions, the iHackHealth Appathon is for you and the LaunchPad would be thrilled for your participation!
How does the Appathon work?
- UCSF PIs (students, medical residents, clinical fellows, postdocs, staff, and faculty) submit their project proposals for an iOS app
- The Appathon Selection Committee reviews the proposals and selects which proposals move on to app development
- UCSF PIs pitch their project proposals to UC Berkeley engineering students to recruit participation for their project at a Kickoff Event
- UC Berkeley Engineering students are paired with the UCSF projects and these multidisciplinary teams develop their prototype app
- The teams have two weeks to develop their prototype apps, during which time the Appathon hosts office hours with iOS experts to provide mentorship, coaching, and guidance on how to best utilize the iOS open-source toolkits as well as pitch presentation coaching
- The teams present a live demo of their prototype apps to a panel of distinguished judges from the HealthTech Industry, Venture Capital, UCSF, and UC Berkeley to determine the winning project
Appathon 3.0 Winners
- Visualyze - Mobile pupillometer for physicians and medical providers that recognizes and measures the diameter of a pupil using a phone camera and its flashlight, providing several measurements and generating a summary to aid physicians in the decision-making process (PI = Derrick Cheng, MD, UCSF Neurology Resident)
- Phantom Mirror - Provides free therapy for phantom limb pain by leveraging augmented reality (PI = Daniel Chan, UCSF Medical Student)
- Pinnacle - Exports hearing settings to AirPods to amplify and/or safeguard hearing and allows AirPods to serve as an accessible alternative to hearing aids (PI= Lourdes Kaufman, UCSF Medical Student)
Appathon 2.0 Winners
- DermScan - Teledermatology app that accounts for numerous variables including lighting and orientation to consistently monitor skin disease across time (PI = David Wu, UCSF MD/PhD Student)
- Bellweather - Incorporates health and demographic indicators of risk with weather data to provide a predictive classification of high-risk individuals and upcoming weather events (PI = Stefano Leitner, MD, MPH, UCSF Occupational & Environmental Medicine Resident
- AIMSS - AI/ML powered virtual stroke scale with medical guidance that can be implemented in low-resource environments to prep for a stroke survivor for intervention upon arrival at a medical facility (PI= Lohith Kini, MD, PhD, UCSF Radiology Resident)