Maine techies fast-track app development to 'flatten the curve'
Courtesy/MyHealthMath
A total of 46 people participated in Friday's hack-a-thon to "flatten the curve" in Maine.
A virtual brainstorming event to "flatten the curve" of the coronavirus outbreak in Maine yielded ideas for six product applications, with the aim of having one ready to launch by April 3.
Ideas include a Maine resource exchange for public entities, a symptom tracker and self-triage system, and a game-based app that incentivizes young people in their 20s to stay at home.
The "Flatten the Curve" hack-a-thon, organized in less than a week and held last Friday, drew 46 participants who were split up into eight teams for five hours of collaborating.
"It could not have gone better," Elizabeth Cote, medical director at Portland-based startup MyHealthMath, told Mainebiz on Monday morning. "Maine happens to be in this place where we happen to be behind other cities" in terms of coronavirus cases, "so we thought, let's see what we can do for Maine specifically in terms of innovating."
Besides MyHealthMath, other sponsors were the VIA Agency, SaviLinx, Cross Employee Benefits and StartUp Maine.
Friday's participants, out of 65 who had registered, included developers, business analysts, computer designers, government officials and public health professionals.
Even U.S. Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, joined in. A surprise participant, King proposed creating a gift-card platform for small businesses, an idea he attributed to his wife, Mary. After making the suggestion, he asked via chat how many hackers had received a laptop in the seventh grade, as per his gubernatorial campaign pledge. A few raised their virtual hands, on behalf of themselves and their kids.
During the five-hour hack-a-thon, teams tackled the themes of encouraging social distancing, resource matching, a buddy system for vulnerable populations and a self-triage symptom checker.
They are continuing the conversation remotely, and are scheduled to formally reconvene this evening to compare notes on top ideas and allocate roles for the next steps.
That will be followed by a second hack-a-thon Friday, March 27, to advance the ideas. Others are welcome to join.
Cote said that while an unlimited number of products could come out of it, it's important to prioritize "so we don't deplete our resources based on impact."
Local response 'more effective'
She also underscored the importance of crafting solutions specific to Maine.
"There's a lot of innovation around the nation and we're welcoming that, but we also want to have a local response, which often works more effectively," she said.
Find out more about the next sessions and future steps here.
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