TY - JOUR T1 - Virtual hackathon to tackle COVID-19 unmet needs JF - BMJ Innovations JO - BMJ Innov DO - 10.1136/bmjinnov-2020-000456 SP - bmjinnov-2020-000456 AU - William S Bolton AU - Shu Ng AU - Angela Lam AU - James Kinch AU - Victor Parchment AU - William P Foster AU - Manuela R Zimmermann AU - Jye Quan Teh AU - Abigail Simpson AU - Karisma Sharma AU - Ryan Kerstein AU - Joshua Burke AU - Stephen J Chapman AU - Peter R Culmer AU - David George Jayne A2 - , Y1 - 2020/12/28 UR - http://innovations.bmj.com/content/early/2020/12/28/bmjinnov-2020-000456.abstract N2 - Summary boxWhat are the new findings?The COVID-19 pandemic prevented physical innovation formats and virtual innovation strategies such as the virtual hackathon proposed in this article may address this challenge.Virtual interdisciplinary collaboration between students and early career professionals can lead to rapid innovations to address urgent unmet clinical needs in times of global emergencies.How might it impact on healthcare in the future?Innovation pathways should be augmented with virtual innovation strategies to break down barriers to engagement in healthcare innovation, improve global interdisciplinary collaboration and enhance rapid innovation adoption moving into the future.Particular healthcare technologies likely to be positively impacted by this include those in digital health, global health and medical device sectors.The COVID-19 pandemic has created an urgent need for healthcare innovation across the globe. In tandem, it has brought travel restrictions and social distancing measures which act as significant barriers to traditional methods of innovation. In this context, we explore the use of virtual hackathons to generate innovation during a global pandemic.Hackathons are events which bring people from different disciplines together with the aim of solving predefined challenges through iterative innovation.1 As the name suggests, this concept emerged from computer sciences, and the model has since been adapted and used in healthcare settings.2 In healthcare hackathons, clinicians collaborate with computer scientists, engineers, physicists, biochemical scientists, industry representatives and patients to solve unmet clinical needs.3 In education, hackathons have been used to facilitate collaborative learning and promote diversity in innovative thinking.4 Hackathons are typically conducted via a large conference format and small group working over a period of hours or a small number of days.The MedTech Foundation is a national, interdisciplinary collaborative group that connects members from medicine and engineering to other MedTech-related specialties. The group has Hubs in six universities across the UK. These each deliver an annual educational workshop series called the … ER -