At Code Hack, participants identify, design, prototype, and pitch innovative solutions that benefit patients, their caregivers, and our healthcare system.
Code Hack 2025 is returning to Royal Jubilee Hospital on March 7-9. Applications for participants and volunteers will open mid to late January. Visit this web page for updates on the event.
What is a hackathon?
Our hackathon is an opportunity for people who are passionate about improving health care to work together.
Over the course of a weekend, you have the chance to pitch what you see as the healthcare challenges in our region and contribute to what could potentially solve these issues.
Applicants do not have to work in health care and there is no cost to participate.
At Code Hack, EVERYONE IS WELCOME.
And we have one common goal: improving health care.
Central to the Code Hack weekend is the 24-hour sprint.
Once our participants have formed small working groups (around 5/6 people) and chosen the projects they want to work on (you also pitch these project ideas), they then have 24 hours to create solutions. This may be an app, it may be a care pathway, it may be signage, a website, or something for a treatment room, anything goes, YOU get to decide!
Winners receive opportunities to further develop their prototypes with Island Health’s Innovation Lab and other community partners. Watch this video to learn more about Code Hack.
Code Hack 2024 Report
Check out our report on the 2024 hackathon event.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2024 Code Hack.
Read below to learn more about three of the teams who were finalists in the 2024 event. Check out this album of photos from the event too!
Pictured: The three winning teams of Code Hack 2024
- Team Next
-
Coming in third place winning a $750 prize, was Team Next whose project focused on improving communications between care providers and patients in emergency departments. Their approach involves the development of and app that links to patient wristbands and waiting room screens.
- Team Fenta-Nil
-
In second place, earning a $1,000 prize was Team Fenta-Nil, who proposed a discrete, easy-to-use and ultimately life-saving device for quick and rapid detection of fentanyl in substances. This approach builds on the current fentanyl strip detection technology available with a goal of making substance testing more readily available.
- Team Zero Blindness
-
This year's $1,500 top prize went to Team Zero Blindness, whose project focused on preventing blindness among at-risk and marginalized groups with treatable conditions, such as diabetic retinopathy. Their concept involved easy-to-use “eyeHealth" kits that could be sent anywhere, from rural and remote locations to urban community centres. Team Zero Blindness also received the People's Choice award, which is voted on by Code Hack participants.
