2 Days, Countless Lives Saved
Hackathon Winners Develop Viable Solutions to Combat Opioid Addiction
The first-ever “The Opioid Hackathon” demonstrated a new and rapid turn-turnaround approach to solving the opioid crisis through citizen engagement and led to 20 potential solutions in fewer than 24-hours.
On October 14th-15th, 2018, teams of computer and data scientists, public health officials, researchers, and patients/families affected by the opioid crisis traveled across the country to compete on finding software and big data-based solutions to the opioid crisis at the University of California Institute for Prediction Technology’s (UCIPT’s) “The Opioid Hackathon.”
To kick off the two-day event, UCIPT held an opioid-focused speaking symposium. Key stakeholders, including federal, state, and local politicians, researchers, and patients/families affected by the opioid crisis, enlightened the public about the crisis and current prevention measures. The Opioid Symposium welcomed speakers Sean Young, PhD, Latecia Engram, MSPH, Matthew Willis, MD, MPH, Tony Rackauckas, JD, Bharath Chakravarthy, MD, Kiran Gill, MPH, Captain Helena Williams, Brian Mittman, PhD, Vagelis Hristidis, PhD, April Rovero, Jeff Chen, MD, MBA, and Dan Cooper, MD.
After the conclusion of the symposium, the hackathon officially began, allowing teams 24 hours to think of and develop new solutions across 4 opioid crisis-related tracks. Prizes included $5,000 for each of the 4 tracks, mentorship with design experts, and travel expenses for teams to continue meeting with key stakeholders throughout the country to further develop and implement their solutions into public health settings. Teams came from universities, including UCLA, UCI, Stanford, Yale, and even overseas, as well as from industry (e.g., Oracle) and startups.
“The Opioid Hackathon was a test to see whether we can bring together individuals from multiple disciplines– most with no prior opioid-related knowledge– to work together to rapidly design and develop implementable solutions to the opioid crisis,” said Sean Young, Associate Professor of Family Medicine at UCLA and Founding Director of UCIPT. “This experiment worked. Now it’s our turn to help the teams implement their solutions so they can continue their impact.”
Focus on implementation was a very unique part of this hackathon. With many hackathons, winning teams and ideas dissipate soon after the event. For The Opioid Hackathon 2018, the period following the hackathon is just as, or more important, than the hackathon itself. Through research support to UCIPT/UCLA from the National Institutes of Health Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Initiative through the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), as well as from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), teams will be provided with incentives for implementation and studied for 1 year after the event through surveys and interviews.
Participants competed across four tracks. Two were focused on software development, with one having an ethics/data-sharing emphasis and the other being focused personalized behavior change apps. The next two tracks focused on data science, artificial intelligence, and visualization submissions, with the final track focus on integrative health solutions, such as cannabis.
The event incorporated hundreds of datasets. The hackathon featured the largest opioid data set of its kind in US history, which included alternative data from opioid-related datasets, such as cannabis.
There were two rounds of judges. First-round judges included Latecia Engram, MSPH, Lloyd Green (IEEE SA), Andrew Deming (Socrata), Dr. Shahram Lotfipour, MD (ICTS), Arielle Radin, Stephanie Soliz, and Claire Houlihan.
Final round judges included Latecia Engram, MSPH, John Ives, Ph.D., April Rovero, Bharath Chakravarthy, MD, Chen Li, Ph.D., Lloyd Green (IEEE SA), and Sean Young, Ph.D.
Track 1 Winners: John Hsu, Sherie Hsieh, Alan Young, Brandon Howard, and Paul Gauvreau developed iPill, an application that regulates opioid dispensing for a patient while offering alternatives to taking the opioid pill.
Track 2 Winners: Ellie Gordon, Alex Chen, Brian Nguyen, Cameron Bacciarini, and Andrew Dennis presented Recovery. Recovery incorporates clinical trial data to improve treatment methods.
Track 3 Winners: Su Jeong Park, Christine Chen, Karen Lee, and Ah Reum Lee used applications of machine learning to predict opioid overdose deaths in California.
Track 4 Winners: Qingpeng Zhang, Jiandong Zhou, Bianca Giusto, and Michael Masterman-Smith used open-source data analysis to predict opioid overdose and help reduce opioid usage.
Teams were inspired, designed solutions with a high potential for impact in just 24 hours, and the winning teams are thrilled at the opportunity to explore the implementation potential of their solutions. “This event provides evidence for a new potential paradigm that invites the general public to be actively involved in rapidly solving urgent public health problems, such as opioid overdose. We are thrilled to continue the next phase of this work with our teams,” said Young. The Opioid Hackathon 2018 demonstrated that dynamic, effective solutions for saving lives can be developed using the hackathon model. UCIPT is excited to explore using hackathons in other public health applications in the future.
We wish to thank the following sponsors for their funding and/or in-kind sponsorship: NIH, NIDA, NIAID, IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA), Socrata, Clinical Blockchain, and the UCI Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (ICTS).