IQ Sensor Solutions was the overall winner of the inaugural Cleveland Medical Hackathon, which ended Sept. 27.

Doctors, nurses, patient advocates, researchers, scientists, programmers, entrepreneurs, engineers and developers worked for more than 24 hours on projects leveraging technology to solve big challenges in the world of medicine, health and wellness. More than 175 participants joined with mentors from the medical, law, tech and public health fields to identify problems, pitch ideas, share expertise and ultimately form teams to find solutions.

The IQ Sensor team set out to measure blood pressure through a compact wearable device that a patient could easily wear on this or her arm. This device’s flexible sensor mimics a traditional Sphygmomanometer (blood pressure cuff), reporting to an app the patient’s real-time blood pressure. The idea was centered on mounting the sensor, along with the electronic components, on the bicep and without the need of an airbag to read the patient’s blood pressure. The five members of the team possessed a mix of industrial, medical and software experience. They included Mike Hoffman (Cleveland Clinic), Kyle Reissner (Rockwell Automation), Kyle McKee (LeanDog), Dr. Morteza Vatani  (the University of Akron) and Ryan Jefferis (biomedical engineering grad student from Cornell University).

Many medical and technology mentors from the Cleveland Clinic (Dr. Mohit Gupta); Validic and Emanate also assisted the mission. Within 24 hours, the team successfully produced a working prototype where the flexible sensor communicated its signal to an iOS app.

Dr. Morteza Vatani’s recently formed Smart 3D Solutions LLC to move the concept forward. He believes the Medhack experience will help the company raise money not only for this application, but other applications in the flexible sensor area of wearable electronics.

“The participants poured their hearts and souls into their projects and have presented some fascinating solutions that address major issues of healthcare today,” said James Krouse, director of marketing and communications at Nesco Resource and one of the event’s organizers.

Twenty-one teams competed for the Nesco Resource Innovation Award and cash prizes of $3,000, $1,500 and $500 for first, second and third place finishes. Winner of second place was NEO+natal, a new approach to combating high infant mortality in many inner cities. The third place winner was the Watershed Health Project, which examined the Cuyahoga County Board of Health paper-based process of monitoring water quality to prevent the transmission of waterborne diseases in streams, rivers and beaches.

The prototype mobile app created an electronic form that inspectors can fill out at the watershed, reducing duplicate data entries and reducing response time from 30 days to one day.  Both street view and earth view of locations are given to the users, giving CCBH inspectors the ability to more accurately find location in remote areas. This management tool will lead to more efficient reporting of potential communicable disease risks, allowing citizens to enjoy the watershed and protect our vital drinking water resource. The team consisted of Carl Preusser, Team Lead/Subject Matter Expert (Cuyahoga County Board of Health);  Chris Kippes, Subject Matter Expert (Cuyahoga County Board of Health);  Fred Longo, Developer (Vitamix);  Tasha Markovich, Design Thinker/Developer (Masters Student UX Design at Kent State); Greg Carpenter, Design Thinker/Info Sec Analyst, (Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland).

Community Health Awards went to the following the HealthyMomHealthy baby teams: HealthyMomHealthyBaby, which built an application that assesses risks to the health of a woman, especially those that influence pregnancy, as well as childbirth and infants.

Reaching patients: This project uses a minimalist smartphone with just one app, allowing discharged patients to easily stay in touch, access community resources, track care plan targets, and request calls or appointments.

CommunityHealthPulse: This interface was designed to allow users to examine trends in health indicators in social media platforms, in the city of Cleveland, using analytics. The interface also will allow for predictive analytics, along with linking social media data to health population data.

Special Validic Prize: The Special Validic goes to Team PEZ: Patient Experience Zealots for their project PainPal.mThrough a combination of data collected from clinical assessment, wearable devices, smartphones, 3D motion capture, and valuable data from partners like Validic, PainPal builds a robust understanding of chronic pain with actionable insights, and can support healthcare providers to find optimized therapeutic and adjunctive therapies that can better address their patient’s pain. Using existing tools such as EMR/EHR, as well as a patient and HCP facing interface. PainPal will help a patient and their HCP quantify as well as manage pain and deliver a measurable impact on chronic pain.