JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Mobile health (mHeath) HIV and sexual health promotion among men who have sex with men (MSM) is feasible in low- and middle-income settings. However, many currently available mHealth tools on the market were developed by the private sector for-profit and have limited input from MSM communities.

Objective:

A health hackathon is an intensive contest that brings together participants from multi-disciplinary backgrounds to develop a proposed solution for a specific health issue within a short time period. The purpose of this paper is to describe a hackathon event that aimed to develop an mHealth tool to enhance healthcare (specifically HIV prevention) utilization among Chinese MSM, summarize characteristics of the final prototypes, and discuss implications for future mHealth intervention development.

Methods:

The hackathon took place in Guangzhou, China. An open call for hackathon participants was advertised on three Chinese social media platforms including Blued, a popular social-networking app among MSM. All applicants finished an online survey and were then scored. The top scoring applicants were grouped into teams based on their skills and content area expertise. Each team was allowed to prepare for the hackathon for one month. Teams then came together in person with on-site expert mentorship for a 72-hour hackathon contest to develop and present mHealth prototype solutions. The judging panel included expertise in psychology, public health, computer science, social media, clinical medicine, and MSM advocacy. Final prototypes were evaluated based on innovation, usability, and feasibility.

Results:

We received 92 applicants and 38 were selected to attend the April 2019 hackathon. Eight teams were formed, including expertise in computer science, user interface design, business/marketing, clinical medicine, and public health. Twenty-four participants self-identified as gay and three self-identified as bisexual. All teams successfully completed a prototype tool. Four prototypes were designed as a mini-program that could be embedded within a popular Chinese social app, and three were designed as stand-alone apps. Common prototype functions included online physician searching based on one’s location (eight prototypes), health education (four prototypes), online health counseling with providers or lay health volunteers (six prototypes), appointment scheduling (eight prototypes), and between-user communication (two prototypes). All prototypes included strategies to ensure privacy protection for MSM users and some offered strategies to ensure privacy of physicians. Selected prototypes are undergoing pilot testing.

Conclusions:

This study demonstrates the feasibility and acceptability of using a hackathon to create mHealth intervention tools. This suggests a different pathway to developing mHealth interventions and could be relevant in other settings.