At the Digital Medicine Society (DiMe), we connect all members of the digital medicine community. Communication and collaboration is at the core of everything we do — our members actively and regularly connect with each other through our Slack channel, meetups at events and conferences, and other outlets.
Recently, we’ve received many requests from members for an avenue that enables problem-solving across our membership as a whole. In response, we were thrilled to host our first Lightning Speed Crowdsourcing event this week!
The purpose of this community-driven series is to seek the wisdom of experts, foster new collaborations, and address any current challenges faced by our members working to advance digital medicine.
Inside this New, Rapid Collaboration Approach
These events are indeed lightning speed! DiMe members who present have just three minutes to share their story and pose their questions, followed by five minutes of real-time interaction with audience members. This allows several presenters to mine the wisdom of the DiMe community in 30 minutes each month. These lightning speed events allow for posing pressing questions in the field, obtaining rapid feedback, and establishing new connections.
This week, DiMe hosted our first Lightning Speed Crowdsourcing event. The inaugural session featured three trail-blazing DiMe members to kick off the series.
Our Inaugural Event Kicks Off…
Bart Stevens, co-founder of Questions.ai, kicked-off the session by comparing the health tech start-up environments of the United States and the European Union, explaining them as top-down and bottom-up, respectively. He questioned the differing methodologies and challenged the DiMe audience to think critically about the differing environments. DiMe members engaged in a comparative discourse of trans-Atlantic development methodologies, highlighting unique challenges of the different spaces.
Michael Bender, CEO of Intake, presented the new company rooted in preventative care and asked the audience what challenges his team can expect as they continue to grow. Michael was inspired to present because the event “seemed like a fantastic, structured way [to let the DiMe community] know about what we are up to and and to get their feedback.” Michael received feedback regarding early patient involvement in product design from event attendees, sharing that he’s already made “many very high quality connections through the Slack” channel.
Priyal Sheth wrapped up the presentations with case studies on MetaCell’s innovative applications of neuroscience software. Priyal demonstrated a fascinating collaboration between MetaCell and Red Bull and also highlighted innovation occurring in their interactive, web-based Social Lab. Attendees found a way to make connections between Priyal’s software and Michael’s technology and even suggested a possible collaboration. This may not have occured in a different setting, given their different subspecialties.
…And Sets a High Bar for Many Future Events
I moderated the pilot and wasn’t quite sure what to expect. Either our DiMe members would be the lively, innovative bunch I know them to be, or the format would be a little too out there and it would be chaos. I should have known better than to doubt our passionate and collaborative DiMe members — the inaugural Lightning Speed Crowdsourcing event was a hit!
Members from across the globe, including Asia, South America, and Europe, dialed in for the live session and contributed excellent questions and insight for the presenters. Our #lightning-speed-crowdsourcing Slack channel was buzzing with conversation after the live event ended, helping foster connections within the digital medicine community.
DiMe member Colleen Russell, entrepreneur and Managing Director at RussStat Consulting, tuned in to the live event; she was interested in understanding “how my ideas could partner with tools and technology already available to create a solution” for patients. Colleen went on to share that the speakers “provided just the right amount of information, and the slightly longer Q&A offered attendees a chance to formulate questions and observations to share.”
What’s Next?
Safe to say, our first Lightning Speed Crowdsourcing event was a great success! We’re now hard at work putting together future sessions.
Want to mine the wisdom of the DiMe community to help your own work? Use this form to sign up to present.
Keen to join us at an upcoming event? Monitor the series webpage for updates and follow us on Twitter or LinkedIn for announcements.
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At DiMe, our commitment to fully integrating experts from all of the disciplines comprising digital medicine is unwavering. From regulators to white-hat hackers, ethicists to engineers, and clinicians to citizen scientists, we are proud to welcome all experts committed to ensuring that digital medicine realizes its full potential to improve human health. Join us!
