UCSF Health Hub Announces the Launch of UCSF Volunteer Patriots Program

APRIL 1, 2020 -- SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- UC San Francisco’s Health Hub, an innovation hub and startup studio supporting the next wave of digital health entrepreneurs, announced the launch of UCSF Volunteer Patriots Program today. This unique program will help UCSF build high-impact internal solutions that it needs right now to respond to COVID-19, by bringing together the best talent from Silicon Valley, UCSF ecosystem and the Health Hub community.

The program aims to leverage a spectrum of skills ranging from engineering, management, software development, project management, graphic design, content specialists, operations management and assistance. Interested volunteers can apply to specific projects on the UCSF Volunteers Patriot website. The Health Hub team will then identify those best qualified for these projects and get them in touch with UCSF. If the solutions work, they can be extended across other hospitals in the UC network, and eventually, to the rest of California.

“We have turned the tables”, said Mark H. Goldstein, Chairman of UCSF Health Hub and General Partner at venture capital firm Builders VC. “Until now, healthcare companies were approaching UCSF and pitching their solutions. These solutions are great - but they do not deliver what UCSF needs right now. With this program, we bring those most equipped to solve specific challenges to the UCSF campus,” he said.

The program was launched with 3 critical projects – building a staff scheduling solution for COVID-19 screening; developing multi-language COVID-19 education content for non-English speaking patients which can be distributed digitally; and, creating a prioritization/triaging solution for rescheduling those patients whose elective procedures has been deferred because of this outbreak. New projects, identified by UCSF, will be added periodically.

“We know our most pressing problems, and we also know the solutions needed to address them,” said Yuxi Lin, Alliance and Business Development Manager at UCSF Innovation Ventures and Program Director at UCSF Health Hub. “We need someone to build it for us, fast,” she said.

“If we can help make UCSF, the best hospital of the West Coast and a top medical research center worldwide, more efficient and better equipped to handle what is going to be a tsunami soon, we can be a part of the solution, not just another part of the problem,” Mark added.

‍About UCSF Health Hub: UCSF Health Hub is a 501c3 non-profit supported and funded by Silicon Valley’s top health-related venture capital firms in a unique affiliation with UCSF. UCSF Health Hub connects ideas and companies with the people, expertise, and capital to scale breakthrough healthcare solutions and produces monthly on-campus events operates an company-to mentor-to clinician online matching system called Health Hub Connect and produces the UCSF Digital Health Awards show. Visit us at https://www.healthhubsf.org/ and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.