A payer, provider, entrepreneur and patient advocate walk into a hackathon…


We, in the health care innovation community, work tirelessly (and often independently) only to forget to look up in search of collaborators. Studies have shown that the development of cost and time-efficient health care innovation is accelerated in a collaborative event environment. Taking that into consideration, we decided to host a virtual Incentivizing Health Hackathon alongside Accountable Care Learning Collaborative (ACLC), America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), American Medical Association (AMA) and Patient Orator.  The goal of the hackathon was to change the narrative and ultimately the system at large through health care collaboration. The virtual hackathon’s guiding lights were patient stories from 10 patient advocates embedded on each team, who steered solutions towards greater impact rather than greater profit. Hear their stories here:


Who participated and what was the outcome? 

*Participants were able to list up to three “affiliations” – there were 100 participants in total 


“Over the past few years, I have been consistently hearing from patients that they want to have a seat at the table. What Cambia Grove and its event partners have done at the Incentivizing Health Hackathon is intentionally built a table with patients and other healthcare stakeholders to convene. Having the patient at the table in the decision-making process was incredibly valuable and innovative.” -- Kistein Monkhouse, CEO of Patient Orator


The vast diversity of attendees at our hackathon intentionally created a collaborative environment among stakeholders who are not typically together at the table.


The winning solution, appropriately named 1Upstream Health, was a gamification experience for young adults partially designed by a young adult. Led by a high school senior, the team created an interactive, evidence-based health education program that uses innovative behavior change methods and gamification to educate, impart empathy, promote resilience, and activate young people to take ownership of their own health and health care journey.

Runner-up solutions included a tech-enabled platform that prioritizes the patient and gives them a system to identify and share their care goals, including a conferencing function enabling them to lead discussions between caregivers. Another team pooled upfront investment resources across multi-disciplinary stakeholders interested in improving longer-term health outcomes, a potential model for multi-payer efforts. And finally, another team developed a solution that involved investment in actionable short-to mid-term care interventions proven to generate cost savings in acute care and emergency medicine, reinvesting those savings to address long-term needs. Find two of the other projects here and here

“We all came up with very different types of solutions. But they all got to some very common, underlying problems. A lot of it is… How do you get your story out there? How do we make things more efficient? I am excited to download all of this information and give it more thought and build it into our day-to-day work.” -- Danielle Lloyd, MPH, SVP Private Market Innovations & Quality Initiatives, AHIP 

Where are they now? 

The majority of participants shared that the event was conducive to brainstorming new approaches and that they left with a greater understanding of the importance of incentivizing health outcomes.

Specifically, 96% of respondents said that they left with new ideas .

Participants have reported sharing their new perspectives during speaking engagements and in day-to-day discussions with colleagues. At least one team is exploring a pilot opportunity within a health system. 

Why is this important now, and what happens next? 

It is important to highlight these cross-organizational partnerships because we don’t see enough of them in the health care industry. As we look back at the event, we have found that by collaborating across multi-disciplinary planning partners, and by encouraging participants to consider new perspectives and look beyond organizational barriers, we have the potential to spark innovation. It takes only one person questioning the status quo to create change, and our goal was to send 100 of those individuals back to their “day jobs” after the event. 

Cambia Grove, ACLC, AHIP and Patient Orator continue to work together toward incentivizing health. The next event lined up in our work to transform the incentives structure in health care is our upcoming summit in June. We hope that you will consider joining us for that virtual event.

It takes commitment and collaboration across a broad set of stakeholders to create true, lasting change. Thank you to our partners at ACLC, AHIP, AMA, and Patient Orator and to the participants of the virtual hackathon. We all need to join in collaborative efforts to catalyze change in support of a more person focused and economically sustainable health care system.