Children's Hospital Los Angeles and BCG Digital Ventures, the corporate venture, investment and incubation arm of the Boston Consulting Group, will kick off the first Gamifying Pediatric Hackathon, which aims to develop new digital health tools and immersive experiences for pediatric patients.
The 48-hour event is open to pediatric physicians and nurses as well as engineers, developers and experts in virtual reality, augmented reality and gaming. Participants will form teams and create prototypes of digital tools that will benefit both pediatric patients and providers.
Participants will present their ideas to a panel of Children's Hospital Los Angeles judges, and winning teams will move forward to the five-month incubator phase, during which participants will have access to $50,000 in seed grants divided amongst teams to develop their prototypes.
"By gamifying the clinical experience, we can reduce stress and anxiety for patients and families, while allowing VR and AR technology to help train residents and nurses more quickly, efficiently and at a lesser cost than setting up live demos using real experts," Omkar Kulkarni, CIO of the CHLA Innovation Studio, said in a news release emailed to Becker's Hospital Review. "Our immediate goal is to create the ecosystem to build games and digital experiences that will serve the needs of patients and providers."
The Hackathon will take place April 12-14 at BCG Digital Ventures in Manhattan Beach, Calif.