Enrico Marcellino sees the Central Florida tech community as one with loads of talent.
He said the effect of having a handful of educational institutions that specialize in training future tech workers cannot be quantified.
However, up until now, Marcellino’s employer AdventHealth, for the most part, has been reluctant to dip too far into that community.
That will soon change: Marcellino will be one of the judges for an upcoming event that blends the region’s deep video game development industry with the health community.
“Right now, we don’t have a robust presence there,” said Marcellino, who leads strategic innovation for AdventHealth in Orlando. “We have a lot of talent locally and we want to see it on display. Sometimes, it’s great to have an outside perspective.”
VISIT INDIENOMICON SITE FOR TICKETS
The Indienomicon Mega Health Jam will bring the area’s developers to the Lake Nona region for a weekend long “game jam.”
Game jams are characterized by a teams solving specific problems in a weekend by building a tech-based solution, often video game-related.
The event is part of a series led by Indienomicon that hosts jams related to space, defense and other industries throughout the year.
A pre-event mixer will be held tonight with the actual event coming on Sept. 6-8.
Marcellino was introduced to the “hackathon” concept through the organization.
“It’s an interesting use of that skillset,” said Marcellino, who has experience in video production. “This is a great pairing to have healthcare professionals bring issues to the table and have creative folks build them a solution.”
Marcellino, who has been with AdventHealth for more than a decade, said healthcare, in general, lags behind other industries in terms of innovation.
However, he grants that sometimes it’s necessary because of the sensitive nature of personal information.
But if tech simplifies areas of a health business outside of patient records, he’s all for it.
“We are starting to pivot into being more open to exploring solutions from the outside,” he said. “A lot of red tape got removed. The industry has become more comfortable moving quickly so we are starting to pursue those solutions more boldly.”
The rate of that pursuit has intensified post-pandemic, he said.
“The innovation conversation is fairly new to healthcare,” he said. “There is a new movement embracing how technology can help our team members and ultimately help patients have a better experience. To be successful, you have to embrace that there are solutions and talent out there that can generate a powerful platform or solution we can take advantage of in the healthcare space.”