UD students tackle health care policy, problems

The prospect of spending 12 hours developing health care policy would send most college students running for a case of beer.

But the University of Delaware students participating in this year's all-night Healthcare Hackathon were right at home.

Divided into groups of three or four, the students had to pitch a policy to university staff and experts in the health field addressing real world policy concerns ranging from issues related to chronic disease, patient accountability, technology and community health with help from mentors at Christiana Care and the state health department among others.

"People of this age are going to push us to do things in a new way," said policy mentor Emily Knearl, section chief of Health and Risk Communication in the Delaware Division of Public Health as the hackathon kicked off Thursday evening.

The UD health care hacks were divided into four groups. Knearl's, for example, looked into new ways to combat obesity in Delaware.

Close to one-third of adults in Delaware are considered obese, which paves the path for conditions such as diabetes hypertension and heart disease. There are social problems that go along with rising obesity rates, from not having a safe neighborhood to play outside to the increasing access of "food deserts" that leave communities without healthy options.

Their answer to the food desert problem: Healthy food trucks to provide, quick, easy access to nutritional food.

To make this dream a reality, you have to combine politics with collaboration, said Hira Rashad, 25, a public policy master's student from Pakistan.

"We are holding policymakers more accountable," added Mallory Smith, 21, a junior form New Hartford, N.Y., studying public policy.

Patients also need to be held accountable for their health decisions, says Ashley Lewis, a senior public policy major from Philadelphia. Early in the evening, Lewis, sophomore Holden Kata and senior neuroscience major Monica Hagenauer students focused creating a diabetes prevention plan that would help patients be more vigilant about making better food choices and following up with doctors.

Though there are many chronic illness prevention programs in Delaware, more need to engage with younger community member to catch issues earlier, the group said. There's a generational disconnect that sometimes leaves the younger professionals out of such policy decisions, Hagenauer said.

"I think it stems from the lack of young health care providers," she said.

This is the way students should be learning, said College of Health Sciences Dean Kathleen Matt, attacking policy issues with a sense of urgency and innovation.

"It's not in the classroom listening to someone lecturing to them," Matt said. "The students don't know the limits. There are no limits to them."

The students looking at policy surrounding health technology took the idea of body cameras, for example to a new level, developing the concept of the "wired patient."

Their idea for a wearable vital sign tester would expedite the process of getting health information to doctors in real time for a quick diagnosis, says Scott Eisenhart, 21, a junior public policy and political science student from Lancaster, Pa.

The technology would be beneficial for aging patients to help emergency medical crews when responding to a fall or medical incident on the fly. The device would work like a life alert button, but would be able to provide a live-stream of the patient and his or her symptoms.

"In order to want to have innovation, you have to be willing. You need to be able to get your hands on it," Eisenhart said.

Especially in the political sphere, where there is a lot of reluctance to move on healthcare issues, added Sean Carey, 22, a senior marketing and entrepreneurship major from Newark,

"There are two sides," Carey said. "One's blue and one's red and they argue."

Sometimes it takes a risk, or a fresh take on an old idea, to have policy truly resonate with people. People have been working on improving community health for years, but there needs to be a focus on meeting people where they are and changing the platform to get there.

To engage younger people, for instance, ramp up the social media, says SaiSri Gajjala, 20, a biomedical engineering major from Wilmington. She participated in a group looking at new community health strategies. Their preliminary plan was to appeal to people ages 6 to 60 and help make fitness tips and healthy food options accessible and readily available.

"Everybody has a voice," she said.

But like anything, change takes time.

"A lot of us are trying to leave something behind," added Justin Berg, a junior biology major pursuing pre-veterinary sciences.

"It's really difficult to do in four years."

Jen Rini can be reached at (302) 324-2386 or jrini@delawareonline.com. Follow @JenRini on Twitter.

Final Hackathon Projects

Group 1: Memento: proposing the use of technology to enable first responders to scan a person's bracelet/badge/necklace to access their health information in case the person (particularly someone with dementia/Alzheimer's) is unable to provide an accurate health history (Winner)

Group 2: Traveling Produce: the freshest food truck on the block! Proposing a collaborative partnership to bring fresh foods to urban food deserts

Group 3: #MyFitNewark proposing a low-cost, grassroots social media campaign for fostering community awareness of and activity around health and wellness including crowd-sourcing of events and peer-to-peer support

Group 4: Teledel proposing an innovative solution for bringing healthcare into the home setting without requiring high-cost telemedicine technology (using a web-based platform)

Source: University of Delaware