Who should come to NHS Hack Days?

• If you’re from a background which isn’t well-represented in most geeky meetups, come along – we want to make a difference.
• If you’re from a background which is well-represented in most geeky meetups, come along – we want your help to make a difference.
• If you’re worried about not being computery enough, come.
• If you think you’re an imposter, come.
• If your day job isn’t code, come.
• This isn’t a group of experts, just people. We are interested in the social and technical problems.
• This is a support group. No-one knows what they are doing.

“…A hackathon (also known as a hack day, hackfest or codefest) is an event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development, including graphic designers, interface designers and project managers, collaborate intensively on software projects. Occasionally, there is a hardware component as well. Hackathons typically last between a day and a week. Some hackathons are intended simply for educational or social purposes, although in many cases the goal is to create usable software…”

That sounds a bit scary. It isn’t.

Hack Days are a fun way to brainstorm collaboratively and come up with quick solutions. Making actual “products” isn’t necessarily the aim; it’s about having a great time, learning something and meeting some brilliant people. The main advantage of Hack Days is having people with a wide range of skills all in the same room and working together, something which may not be achieved quite so explicitly during day jobs in software development.

What makes NHS Hack Days different is that we are committed to welcoming people who don’t necessarily have computer skills to our events. We want everyone with any interest whatsoever in healthcare technology: healthcare professionals, patients and their relatives, representatives from charities, and anyone else who wants to help out, or even just to see what we’re doing. Notably a career researcher in chemistry came along to one of our recent events by accident thinking it was a day of lectures, but he was persuaded to stay anyway and ended up being part of the winning team!

Find out more here!