GE Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital, in Partnership with the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to Host Hack-a-thon to Combat Opioid Epidemic

GE Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), in conjunction with the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, announced a joint effort to combat Massachusetts’s opioid addiction epidemic with a hack-a-thon scheduled for September 9-11, 2016 at District Hall in Boston. GE Foundation’s sponsorship of this event is part of its five-year, $50 million philanthropic commitment to the Boston community, $15 million of which will be dedicated to health efforts such as the hack-a-thon, increasing access to health for the underserved, particularly those patients requiring care for addictions and behavioral health, and increasing training for specialty care.

During the hack-a-thon, GE Foundation and MGH and will bring together a far-reaching and diverse group of 250 innovators across public health, engineering, business, and design to develop solutions to the opioid epidemic. The event will open with an Opioid Challenge Summit on Friday, September 9, providing a forum for clinical experts, thought leaders, policy makers, patients, families, and law enforcement to identify the greatest unmet needs and challenges in addiction and prevention. On Saturday, September 10, cross-disciplinary teams will rally around these challenges to create disruptive innovations in opioid addiction prevention, treatment and recovery. On Sunday, September 11, teams will make their final presentations to an expert panel of judges, who will give awards to the five most promising innovations. Teams will be supported for 90 days after the event, and, at the conclusion, the single most promising innovation will receive a grand prize to accelerate implementation.

There is an urgent need to address opioid addiction across the country. The United States is experiencing an unprecedented epidemic of drug overdose and poisoning deaths. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the rate of deaths from drug overdoses has increased 137% since 2000, including a 200% increase in the rate of overdose deaths involving opioids such as pain relievers and heroin. The CDC also reports that approximately 78 people in the U.S. die from an opioid overdose each day.

Heroin and fentanyl trade and trafficking across New England is a serious and growing issue. According to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 1,379 Massachusetts deaths in 2015 were attributable to a fatal dose of heroin or an opioid-based painkiller – nearly four people per day statewide.