A Systems Approach to Healthcare Innovation Using the MIT Hacking Medicine Model

Tatyana A Gubin; Hari P Iyer; Shirlene N Liew; Aartik Sarma; Alex Revelos; João Ribas; Babak Movassaghi; Zen M Chu; Ayesha N Khalid; Maulik D Majmudar; Christopher Xiang Lee

doi:10.1016/j.cels.2017.02.012

A Systems Approach to Healthcare Innovation Using the MIT Hacking Medicine Model

Cell Syst. 2017 Jul 26;5(1):6-10. doi: 10.1016/j.cels.2017.02.012.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building 3-173, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA.
² MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA.
³ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of System Design & Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building E40-306, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁴ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building E25-518, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁶ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 30 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁷ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck Street, Boston, MA, USA; Department of Otolaryngology, Cambridge Health Alliance, 1493 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA, USA; Healthcare Transformation Lab, Corrigan Minehan Heart Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁹ MIT Hacking Medicine, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1 Amherst Street, Building E40-160, Cambridge, MA, USA; Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building E25-518, Cambridge, MA, USA; David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 500 Main Street, Cambridge, MA, USA. Electronic address: leechris@mit.edu.

PMID: 28750199
DOI: 10.1016/j.cels.2017.02.012

Abstract

MIT Hacking Medicine is a student, academic, and community-led organization that uses systems-oriented "healthcare hacking" to address challenges around innovation in healthcare. The group has organized more than 80 events around the world that attract participants with diverse backgrounds. These participants are trained to address clinical needs from the perspective of multiple stakeholders and emphasize utility and implementation viability of proposed solutions. We describe the MIT Hacking Medicine model as a potential method to integrate collaboration and training in rapid innovation techniques into academic medical centers. Built upon a systems approach to healthcare innovation, the time-compressed but expertly guided nature of the events could enable more widely accessible preliminary training in systems-level innovation methodology, as well as creating a structured opportunity for interdisciplinary congregation and collaboration.

MeSH terms

Academic Medical Centers
Delivery of Health Care*
Diffusion of Innovation*
Humans
Interdisciplinary Studies
Massachusetts
Models, Organizational*
Systems Analysis