Hack-Health On! – Developing Mobile Healthcare Solutions for Rural India

Vihara Innovation Network (VIN), Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Startup Tunnel, NASSCOM 10000 Startups announced an important partnership, that will, for the first time include, a collaborative effort between the organisations to conduct an healthcare focused hackathon.  Healthcare in remote areas of the country is often impaired due to lack of reach and implementation of services. The mission of this hackathon is primarily to solve that problem, or at least initiate solutioneering.  Therefore, The 36 hour Hack is aimed at building mobile healthcare solutions for rural india.

The VIN and Embassy led initiative is also been jointly supported by our other key partners Philips, UNFPA, Persistent, DSM, Manipal Hospitals, Maastricht UMC. The endeavor has also seen support from other partners who came forward in active support of the identified problems in Maternal and child healthcare, Nutrition, Diagnostics and Immunization. The hackathon will see 5 key challenges, articulated by AIMS, Philips, Bihar Innovation Lab, Civic Innovation Lab, NASSCOM 10K Startups and UNFPA.  A carefully selected team of mentors and experts will be empanelled to address these challenges with the team of android developers, medtech professionals and healthcare professionals over the span of 2 days.

Day 1 and Day 2 of the hack will witness intense programming, including pitch presentations with mentors, medtech professionals and investors. On Day 3 in the attendance of the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, the award ceremony will take place where the top prizes will include a trip to the Netherlands along with a funded opportunity to develop your app further.

The winning team will be entitled to get a  Trip to Netherlands and INR 200000 to develop the winning idea further, amongst other internship and mentorship opportunities.

Below is your complete guide to what a Hackthon is and what can you expect from a Health Hackathon. If you are an android based programmer, a healthcare professional, a coding enthusiast, a techie, or a med tech professional interested to participate in Hack-Health On!, click here to register for your participation.

What is a hackathon?

A hackathon aims at solving problems of global concern for the benefit of citizens worldwide or locally, by bringing together the worlds of technology and of the different stakeholders in a social

issue. At a hackathon participants will do something rather than just talk; they will add value, co-create and find solutions. These solutions can be digital, in the form of an app or an interactive

website, but do not need to be. It can also result in high level concepts, new networks or other innovations. During a hackathon participants from different fields of expertise are teamed up with

programmers, and these teams subsequently are given a well-defined and tangible social challenge to which they should find a solution in less than 48 hours. This limited timeframe, the element of competition, and the diverse makeup of the participants often results in surprising and innovative solutions.

Why healthcare in rural areas?

India has been on the path of considerable progress concerning the improvement of rural health care, both in terms of quality and accessibility. While these strategies have brought more people to receive adequate healthcare, is has also brought to forefront deficiencies in the existing care provision mechanism of the health ecosystem.

Why a hackathon?

The need for innovation of health is important to not just save lives but also ensure a better quality of services. People can better access these services through different possibilities of design, mobile-tech, medical-tech, iterative hacking and rapid prototyping that impacts awareness and leads to self-health tracking and mobilization.

When will it be held?

The hackathon will be held on 3rd and 4th of June 2015 at the Vihara Innovation Campus, New Delhi. The winning team will be announced during the award ceremony which will take place on 5th

of June 2015, at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in New Delhi, where the Prime Minister of the Netherlands will hand over an award to the winners.

Who can participate and what are we looking for?

Programmers and developers. We are ideally looking towards programmers and developers who have experience in the field of e-health, although programmers and developers from outside the field and who are willing to work on health-related solutions are more than welcome. As a deliverable, we can ensure programmers and developers a platform on which they can show their talents to high profile organisations.

Expert mentors. We are looking to reach out to individuals from the medical field: these could be medical practitioners and academics, but also policymakers in the field of healthcare and health entrepreneurs. They would be partnered with the programmers during the event and provide the programmers with feedback and solutions towards the challenge they choose to work on. As a

deliverable, we can ensure the expert mentors a high level platform on which they can extend their networks and demonstrate their expertise. Partners who are willing to articulate specific challenges

in rural healthcare, using their experiences as a starting point. We are looking towards NGOs, private firms, social enterprise, and policy-makers to bring the issues they encounter in the field of rural health care provision. We will then streamline these issues into tangible challenges for the hackathon. As a deliverable, we can ensure our partners considerable exposure during the hackathon and

the award ceremony with the Prime Minister.

Impact Investors. who are willing to listen to the initial, intermittent and final pitch presentations during the hackathon and subsequently offer advice or/and display interest to help the programmers develop their concepts further.

Register here to participate in the Hackathon or write to us at outreach@adianta.org to know more!