The Blog

Here in Austin, we’re just coming off of the SXSW buzz; people from all over the world were here exploring the city and hunting (be it music, education or technology) for “the next big thing”. Health should be at the center of that, and the Interactive portion of SXSW included panels devoted solely to advancements in health technology! An extension of this great innovative energy, our organization is hosting our first annual Hack for Health event as an opportunity for the most brilliant professionals and students in Central Texas to brainstorm ground-breaking solutions to the health crisis.

The Hack for Health Presented by Freescale is not your average one-day hack-a-thon. We believe the health of our nation deserves more than one day, so we’re giving teams until April 25th to register and prepare your solutions in the areas of Marketing, Technology, and Business Development. Team registration is now open for groups of 3-8, and each project is focused on a different IT’S TIME TEXAS program, including our two new mobile apps! Our brilliant friends at Y&R Austin, HCB Health and Sense Corp are fielding teams and leading the three project areas. Innovation is the goal, and health is the target. We are seeking fresh, viable solutions, and we will seriously consider working with the winning teams to make your projects a reality.

HCB Health is taking the Hack to the next level by holding an internal contest with their employees! Joe Doyle, VP of Digital Strategy, explained, “Our Chicago office will have one team and Austin will field two. Each team contains 4-5 people and our process includes discovery and experience, ideation, and prototype creation. The teams are self sufficient and have deadlines, plus they will benefit from guidance of our digital team experts! In the end, we will have an internal pitch contest and the winning ideas will make their way to Hack for Health.” We asked Joe why so many HCB employees are joining the Hack. “We are a healthcare-based experience agency, and everything we create helps people, so this hack-a-thon is a perfect way for us to make a difference while involving bright minds in the agency who might not normally work on creating mobile health apps!” In case you need more reasons to join, the winning Hack teams will receive ACL day passes and a $1,000 grant for our team to ‘healthify’ the Austin area schools of their choice with a community garden or healthy messaging campaign!

Want to join in? The first step is to register your team of 3-5 people. You will be prompted to choose the project you want to hack. You have until April 25th to prepare your pitch, and a member of the IT’S TIME TEXAS team will reach out to you personally when you register, to answer any questions that come up about your project or our organization. Your team will schedule a 15-minute slot to pitch at Freescale for a panel of judges on April 25th, and the winning teams will be invited to a celebratory reception with the judges and the IT’S TIME team! There are separate tracks for students and professionals, and we will select a winning team from each track for each project (6 total).

We invite you to Hack for Health and join the cause to build healthier Texas communities. Don’t forget to tag us and use the hashtag #HackforHealth when you share sneak peeks of your team at work!