Healthcare’s tectonic shifts are forcing fundamental business model change to every one of it’s players, both in the United States and globally. Medical and health technology — for decades derided as the driver of increased health costs — are now the key enabler of new products, re-imagined services and new business models to extend the reach and impact of healthcare. Digital tech and the telemedicine enabled by it have proven that health systems can bend the cost curve and accomplish the “Triple Aim” of increased access, better outcomes and lower costs with:
• New sensors and biometrics
• Connected medical devices
• Companion apps to therapeutics
• Re-designed care delivery models
• New business models
• Digiceuticals + Electroceuticals that compliment or replace traditional pharmaceuticals
Over the past decade, MIT Hacking Medicine has pioneered open innovation events we call healthcare hackathons far beyond Cambridge to over 90 events in 30 countries, bringing a repeatable process and tools for identifying big healthcare problems and catalyzing new solutions and care models using technology to scale medicine. Example event themes and impact over the years:
• Hacking Oncology
• Hacking Pediatrics
• Hacking Cardiology
• Hacking Dermatology
• Hacking Primary Care
• Hacking Portable Ultrasound
• Hacking the Breast Pump
• Hacking Medical Imaging
• Hacking Mental Health Interventions
• Hacking Aging In Place and Eldercare
• Hacking Rural Care in the United States
• Hacking Village Care in India
• Hacking Racism in Public Health
• Hacking COVID-19
• Dozens of startups have raised over $250MM in venture capital funding
MIT Hacking Medicine co-founder and Faculty Director, Zen Chu, will describe what we have learned over the past decade with examples and best practices. He also will discuss the role corporations have played in those events and how companies can leverage hackathons for sourcing ideas and identify new technologies relevant to their business.
Co-Founder and Faculty Director, MIT Hacking Medicine Senior Lecturer, MIT Sloan School of Management
Zen Chu serves as Faculty Director of MIT's Hacking Medicine Initiative, and is a Senior Lecturer in Healthcare Innovation for both the MIT Sloan School of Management and Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology program.
In partnership with Professors Martha Gray and Bill Aulet, Zen created and directs HST.978 MIT Healthcare Ventures, a graduate course that teaches entrepreneurship, business models, and venture creation around technology that can transform healthcare. Zen actively consults companies in pharma, health tech, and healthcare systems struggling to adapt to global digital healthcare transformation and emerging markets.
As managing director of Accelerated Medical Ventures, Zen specializes in building early-stage medical technology and healthcare service companies, usually serving as cofounder and first investor. AMV’s portfolio spans Boston, Silicon Valley, and China, including PillPack.com, Call9.com, Figure1.com, NuRx.com, 3D-Matrix Medical [JASDAQ: 7777], Sofi.com, Curoverse Genomics (acq Veritas Genomics), BitGym.com, DirectDermatology.com, and a few companies still in stealth mode.
Alongside MIT professors Shuguang Zhang, Alex Rich, Alan Grodzinsky, and Bob Langer, Zen cofounded and served as ceo for 3D-Matrix Medical Inc., a venture-backed MIT regenerative medicine company with a successful IPO in 2011. 3D-Matrix has wound-healing and drug-delivery products on the market outside of the US and multiple human clinical trials in process.
He has managed and led new ventures for Harvard Medical School, Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Bioengineering, NetVentures, and Hewlett-Packard. Zen earned a BS in biomedical/electrical engineering from Southern Methodist University and an MBA from Yale University. He is married to Katie Rae, a serial entreprenuer and CEO of MIT's Engine Fund. They are raising three aspiring entrepreneurs in Brookline, MA.