Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon

April 2-3, 2016 | Boston

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 2

Pitching Challenges • A Look at o

ur M

ento

rs •

In April 2016, approximately 200 participants gathered at Massachusetts General Hospital for a hack-a-thon to create new product concepts, design novel personal protective equipment and develop new methods for local vector control to help bend the curve of the Zika epidemic and similar outbreaks. Clinicians, designers, developers, entrepreneurs and a wide range of stakeholders from across the Americas joined forces to create new technologies, business models, and process innovations to transform prevention, diagnosis and care in resource-limited settings. Over 48 hours, innovators pitched 50+ clinical challeng-es, formed 15 teams, and presented their innovations to a panel of judges. The 4 winning teams took home a total of $4,000 in prizes and will receive acceleration support to help move their innovations forward.

• In

spiri

ng K

eynotes • Voices from the Field Panel •

The

Tea

ms

• A Glance at Our Innovations • The

Organizers

Partners

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon

Prizes • Press • Appendix: Clinical C

halle

nges

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200PARTICIPANTS

50+

CLINICAL CHALLENGES

15TEAMS

4AWARDS

$4,000+

IN PRIZES

EMD Serono and EMD Performance Materials are businesses of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany.

The Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon was sponsored by an industry consortium from the Private Sector Round Table (PSRT), chaired by the GE Foundation and J&J, and includes Merck KGaA. The PSRT is focused on the global health security agenda and works to mobilize the private sector more effectively for global threats.

Sponsors

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 3

Participants and mentors arrived on Saturday morning to hear welcome addresses and keynote speeches from such institutions as the GE Foundation, the Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, USAID, and the White House. Their inspirational remarks highlighted the need for innovation in vector control, personal and spatial protection, and community engagement to halt the spread of the Zika virus and other vector-borne diseases.

Inspiring Keynotes

Clockwise from top left: Mr. Tim Prestero and Dr. Claudia Osorio-de-Castro, Ms. Amy Pope, Dr. David Barash, MCs Drs. Ryan Carroll and Miriam Aschkenasy, Dr. Melody Ennis and Mr. Everton Baker.

Welcoming Addresses

Elizabeth Bailey, Director, CAMTech, Massachusetts General Hospital “Don’t be afraid to take risks and don’t be afraid to fail. The innovations that you create have the potential to impact millions of lives.”

Hilarie Cranmer, MD, Director, Global Disaster Response, Massachusetts General Hospital “MGH has had a long tradition of responding to disasters, and part of our creed is that when is distress, everyone is our neighbor. Re-apply what you already know. Figure it out. Make a difference.”

David Barash, MD, Chief Medical Officer, GE Foundation “We have learned a lot of lessons from involvement in crises like Zika. The private sector can do better in responding to crisis management and crisis preparedness.”

Keynotes

Amy Pope, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy Assistant to the President, National Security Council, The White House “This problem is so urgent. I value your time, and the President values your time. The only way we as a global community can get ahead of the next threat is to ensure our partners around the world have the tools they need to detect, take action and prevent.”

Nestor Sosa, MD, Director, Gorgas Memorial Institute of Health Studies, Panama “We detected the first cases in Panama in early December. Yesterday we had a total of 183 confirmed cases. I am con-fident that the innovations that come out of this hack-a-thon will enable us to move in the right direction.”

Wendy Taylor, Director, Center for Accelerating Innovation and Impact, USAID “Make sure you think about solutions that can help respond to the threats of tomorrow. Understand the end user. Un-derstand the market needs.”

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 4

Voices from the Field Panel

During the Voices from the Field Panel discussion, experts shared their experiences practicing in the field and identified the most critical needs. Dr. Hilarie Cranmer, Director of Global Disaster Response at Massachusetts General Hospital and Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, moderated the panel. The panel included:

“We can’t rely on people taking their own initiatives to protect themselves. They have their own social and

economic challenges.”

- Dr. Néstor SosaDirector, The Gorgas Memorial Institute of Panama

Michael Callahan, MD, Infectious Disease clinician, Massachusetts General Hospital “The WHO says the urgent way to save lives is not through medical measures.”

Claudia Garcia Serpa Osorio-de-Castro, ScD, Professor, Sergio Arouca National School of Public Health “We need better diagnostic tools to distinguish between dengue, zika and chikungunya. And we need to manage risk.”

Susan Robinson, PhD, Associate Director for Communication Science, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “You don’t really understand something unless you understand it in multiple ways. All mosquitos are not the same, they can be as different as a hawk and a lion. I need traps that only attracts Aedes.”

Everton Baker, MSc, Director of Environmental Health, Ministry of Health, Jamaica “We recognize there are two major challenges: storage of water for domestic use and cultural beliefs. People believe mosquitos are not the cause of Zika, that airplanes brought the virus to the country.”

Néstor Sosa, MD, Director, The Gorgas Memorial Institute of Panama “Communication, sending the right message and combating these myths, will be powerful in protecting individuals against the Zika virus.”

Pitching Challenges

In addition to the 5 clinical challenges identified by the organizing team (see Appendix), participants pitched over 50 self-identified “pain points” related to Zika. These challenges became the foundation for team formation and hacking solutions through the weekend. Some sample pitches included:

• The need for safer, more effective personal protective gear to guard against vector-borne diseases, especially in the home and workplace

• A way to keep still, potable water free of the mosquito larvae• Rapid and affordable ways to identify mosquitoes infected with Zika in the field• Faster and more efficient ways of communicating risks, which includes utilizing

mobile technology and social messaging to aid in the public health response

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 5

A Look at our Mentors

Over 40 mentors dedicated their weekend to supporting teams throughout the hack-a-thon. Mentors played a vital role by sharing their expertise in health, engineering and/or business to aid in the development of new tools and technologies. A few of the mentors:

Elaine Miranda, ScD, MSc, Professor, Federal Fluminense

University, Brazil

Michael Callahan, MD, Infectious Disease clinician,

Massachusetts General Hospital

Everton Baker, MSc, Director of Environmental Health,

Ministry of Health, Jamaica

Susan Robinson, PhD, Associate Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Beth Mosher, Associate Professor of Industrial

Design, Rhode Island School of Design

Vikas Meka, Innovation Advisor, USAID

Claudia Osorio-de-Castro, ScD, Professor, Sergio Arouca National

School of Public Health

Dr. Melody Ennis, Director, Emergency, Disaster Management

and Special Services, Ministry of Health Jamaica

Bobby Kapur, M.D., M.P.H, Chief of Emergency Medicine,

Jackson Memorial Hospital

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 6

The Teams

During the weekend, 15 cross-disciplinary teams formed to co-create so-lutions to address the spread of the Zika virus and related outbreaks.

A Glance at the Innovations

o CapZika: a way to engage communities to effectively collect and share reliable broad scale data through mobile technology

o Squashing Viral Rumors: a web platform for public health organizations to track and fight against rumors related to health emergencies like Zika

o AHEAD (Aedes Home Education Action Kit): a kit with easily-made mosquito traps for use within the home, using common, recyclable and non-toxic materials

o Big Z: a centralized data repository for Zika information

o Buzz Tracker: an app to crowdsource surveillance data on mosquitos by encouraging users to take photos of mosquitos

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 7

The Prizes

A total of $4,000 was awarded to 4 teams whose innovations directly addressed challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean related to the Zika epidemic and other vector-borne diseases.

$1000 Most Implementable Solution (sponsored by the GE Foundation): Team LAD (Larvicide Automatic Dispenser) – an automatic dispenser that helps ensure adequate larvicide dosing through the use of a water buoy

$1000 Most Innovative Solution: Team Larva Finder – an add-on device to a smart phone with a supporting mobile application that detects the presence and geographic location of specific larvae species

$1000 for the innovations that promise the Greatest Public Health Impact (supported in part by Grand Challenges Canada): Team Relix – a mobile tool that allows users to report high-risk mosquito breeding areas Team Phairies – a game that teaches children about mosquito risks and vector control strategies

CAMTech Accelerator Support: In addition to the existing expertise and resources provided through the CAMTech Innovation Platform, each winning team will receive tailored mentorship and support to accelerate the path to commercialization.

Post-Hack Prize – $25,000 CAD Zika Innovation Awards: CAMTech and Grand Challenges Canada are joining forces to provide Zika Innovation Awards of up to $25,000 CAD, which will accelerate the development and commercialization of innovations addressing the Zika public health crisis. Up to five teams will be selected through a formal application process. (These Awards will be available to a select number teams that participated in the Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon or are already part of Grand Challenges Canada’s portfolio of investments.) The awards are also intended to encourage and support submissions to the up-coming opportunity from USAID: Combating Zika and Future Threats: A Grand Challenge for Development.

Press Highlights

Hacking Zika: Solving for an International Health Threat https://medtechboston.medstro.com/blog/2016/04/04/hacking-zika-solving-for-an-international-health-threat-2

Press Release http://www.massgeneralcenterforglobalhealth.org/camtech/wp-content/up-loads/2016/04/Zika-Innovation-Hack-a-thon-Post-Hack-Release-FINAL3.pdf

Hacking Zika: Taking Action http://bitly.com/CAMTechZikaVideo

Zika Innovation Hack-a-thon in Review 8

CHALLENGE DESCRIPTION

Theme - The Mosquito

For decades, killing disease-transmitting mosquitos and their eggs by use of chemicals has been the main mechanism for prevention of vector-borne illnesses such as Malaria, Dengue and now Zika. This can be expensive, time consuming, and complicated. Current attempts to curtail Zika and other vector-borne illnesses focus on genetically modified mosquitos, but this has not yet proved to be an effective intervention. What are other innovative, easily accessible, timely, and affordable methods to disrupt the life cycle of the mosquito and protect people? What are new ways to approach vector control?

Theme - The Person

There is a need for safer, more effective personal protective gear that can guard against vector-borne diseases, especially in the home and workplace. How can we think beyond chemically treated skin, clothing, and bednets? What are some alternative ways to alter living environments and workspaces so that people are less susceptible to exposure, vector bites, and disease transmission? How can we recognize exposure and diagnose the disease more quickly and efficiently?

Theme - The Clinic

Diagnosing the Zika virus is complex, because often the symptoms overlap with other vector-borne diseases like Dengue and Chikungunya. Healthcare providers and lab researchers are still trying to understand how to correctly identify, treat and communicate with patients about Zika. How can we improve the patient experience and support healthcare workers with better innovations to treat Zika?

Theme - The Community

The public health response is an integral part of dealing with vector-borne illnesses and affected populations. A key aspect to a rapid and effective response involves developing novel approaches to diagnose and track outbreaks, as well as collecting and reporting data in real time. We need faster and more efficient ways of communicating risks, which includes utilizing mobile technology and social messaging to aid in the public health response. How do we bend the bio-surveillance curve to our advantage?

Theme - The Future

The frequency of infectious disease outbreaks continues to increase. Climate change and rapid and chaotic urbanization have elevated our risk of contracting vector-borne illnesses. Rapidly responding to such threats - in part through open-innovation in which collective thought across disciplines is championed - will be increasingly important to mitigate risks, improve health, and save lives. How might we course-correct, predict future outbreaks, and improve our response to future threats?

Appendix: Clinical Challenges