New York-Presbyterian 'hackathon' won by bicoastal team

A hospital-sponsored software development contest has produced new tech tools for patients to connect with each other and to improve check-in and other processes.

A bicoastal team of programmers calling themselves the Health Warriors were the winners of the $50,000 top prize in the two-day, InnovateNYP “hackathon” sponsored by New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

The winners created PresbyHangouts, an enhancement to the hospital's myNYP patient Web portal. The software enables inpatients “to connect with other patients with common interests, allowing them to play games together and communicate through instant messaging and video chat,” according to a hospital news release.

Two Long Island residents took second place and a $25,000 prize with the application, Intermed, which somewhat similarly allows patients to use the patient portal to connect with each other based on their medical conditions and outside interests.

The third-place $10,000 prize winners were two brothers from Queens who developed Presbyterian Plus, a platform to improve check-in and other processes.

A total of 17 teams participated in the March 15-16 event at the hospital.

“Our plan now is to reach out to all of the participants with innovative concepts to continue to engage and learn more about how they could potentially help patients at New York-Presbyterian,” said Aurelia Boyer, senior vice president and chief information officer.

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn