Increasing the impact of medical image computing using community-based open-access hackathons: The NA-MIC and 3D Slicer experience.

•Traditional academic reward system and mechanisms for research funding create “valley of death” for research prototypes by valuing novelty over robustness and reproducibility.•The US-based National Alliance for Medical Image Computing (NA-MIC) was formed in 2004 to address this problem by creating robust tools that enable reproducible science.•NA-MIC transformed 3D Slicer, a research prototype for medical image processing, into a professionally maintained, robust, and extensible software platform for translational research that is downloaded over a thousand times a week by researchers worldwide.•A key ingredient in the success of NA-MIC is the strong sense of belonging to the community and a shared ownership of outcomes.  This has been fostered through a semi-annual “NA-MIC Project Week” hackathon series that has run continuously since 2005.