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Ask HN: Any interest in a monthly health/med hacker meetup in NYC?

31 points by kyro ↗ HN
I've been thinking about starting a monthly health/med meetup here in NYC for hackers. There's nothing, from what I've found, like a homebrew computer club for health, where geeks get together to show off what they've been working on, to just sit around a table, drink a beer, throw ideas around. And with all the new sensor technologies being developed, it's only a matter of time before hackers start to tinker around to create some pretty fascinating concepts.

So I'm seeing if there'd be any interest out there for what I just described. It'd be a monthly event. But I'll need to know roughly how many would make it so that I can set up the appropriate venue.

I ask that you please vote yes only if you're in NYC and would be able to attend, given your availability.

If anyone wants to help out, you can email me at kyro@kyrobeshay.com

EDIT: I've set up a a Meetup group http://www.meetup.com/HackerMed/

27 comments

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yodawgs
Do it and find out but it would be great.
chatman
Are you a health insurance agent?
kanamekun
I don't know kyro at all, but his profile links to a Twitter profile, which says he's a "Medical Student, Designer".

Blog here: http://kyrobeshay.com

daveambrose
you should check out / meet with the team at Blueprint Health here in NYC: http://www.blueprinthealth.org/

i could imagine they'd be interested in getting this off the ground with you

kyro
Yeah, that'd be great. Thanks!
mikecarroll
Yeah, the Blueprint folks are great: They've been amazing sponsors for the Health Devs meetup group and have hosted our meetups in their space since we started.
oldbuzzard
I don't follow this area closely myself... but you sound like you are interested in the quantified self movement.

Check out http://quantifiedself.com If that looks up your alley, they have meetups every couple of month. See http://www.meetup.com/NYQuantifiedSelf I have no idea of the quality, since I'm out in flyover country but it looks good :)

-chris

dandelany
I don't know much about the field myself, but recently interviewed with Flatiron Health in NYC - http://www.flatiron.com. They have a great team of brilliant developers and may be interested in participating, so think about reaching out to them!
memset
YES.

The healthcare industry is absolutely ripe for disruption; I'd totally hang out with people working on meaningful projects related to improving the health of our loved ones.

(i work in wburg and live in bushwick. so... if you're looking for venues... that is what is convenient to me! :)

siculars
I'm in. Second half of the month please!
mikecarroll
I organize Health Devs, which is pretty much exactly as you describe: we do monthly events where people show off things they've created, get help on code, etc. Our next meetup, on Tuesday, will focus on the Open mHealth project: http://www.meetup.com/HealthDevsNYC/events/138467042/

We are always looking for people to help organize more events though, and would love to have you (or anybody else interested) involved. Events are informal and always free. Shoot me a line: michael @ aqua.io

thetylerhayes
West coaster here: as someone who watches all the NY health + technology activity form afar, seems like HealthDevsNYC is the place to be.
richsin
This would be great. We need more of this in NYC.
[deleted]
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kbelbina
Sounds great. Maybe make a meetup.com group.
eternalban
Was considering quitting my job (in nyc) just this morning and finally getting my health care idea off the ground. And now this! :)

Definitely interested.

adamjf
I work at Flatiron Health and a few of us here would be interested in attending such an event.
caycep
I would be totally into this, just not located in NYC at the moment :/
j2labs
From someone who's organized multiple meetups in NYC, Hack And Tell being the most well-known, I would say just start the meetup. There's a high probability of lots of people in NYC thinking in the same direction you're thinking, but what you want to do is start letting them know there is a place they can find like-minded people.

Further, meetup will help get eyes on the event. They've been very helpful for my meetups. They're even willing to host them and buy beer / pizza for the attendees.

You'll know within a few months if it's not speaking to people, but more importantly, you'll know if the opposite is true.

j_s
Question: Is it worth asking for email address as a field on the join form? I was suprised to see this on one group and wondered if meetup.com kept email addresses from organizers. This would make life tough in cases like the following:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4754269 (Hacker News Meetup Cologne Hostile Takeover)

thetylerhayes
Meetup has a messaging system so they don't have to give out email addresses.

Anecdotal: I never enter my email address on meetup group registrations because it seems weird that they would ask for it since they can already message me. I think it's also because so many organizers have abused meetup.com groups and meetup.com itself, despite millions of users, looks shady.

I always enter my email address on an Eventbrite event though.

j2labs
I don't think so. Meetup will ask them and provide a mailing list so reaching them is possible while still maintaining their privacy.

You can, of course, ask them for anything and see if they offer.

rico75
I'm not in the field but would like to expand my knowledge in this field. I'd be in to meet up at a designated location.
ryanteo
Hi, that's a great idea! Btw, I'm from Singapore and we do informal meetups among people working on healthcare technology. What we normally do is to take it a step further than just getting to know each other. We describe a pain point that each of us experiences without divulging sensitive information and we generate as many solutions and perspectives as possible within 1-2 hours. If anyone is based in Asia, would like to reach out.
NovemberWest
I was not even able to get a health hacker email list going. Maybe you could try that instead? It would be a lower burden of entry and could be open to a larger audience.