(Saturday, October 5th 2024) Students studying a range of Computing, Digital and Data courses at TU Dublin have spent the last 24 hours brainstorming technological solutions affecting patient well-being during the fourth annual health hackathon in association with Tallaght University Hospital, HSE in the Community and supported by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The event is in its fourth year and for the first time TU Dublin had to open a waiting list for the event such was the demand from students Dublin to attend. A total of 78 participated, dividing into 20 teams and developed a tech-based solution for five challenges set, in a very busy 24 hour period. Senior Cloud Solutions Architects from AWS also provided expertise and guidance, ensuring each group developed ideas that were achievable from a technical perspective.
Monitoring home treatment of patients with bleeding disorders, the Development of a Medical Device Education e-library, Recognising Sepsis in the Community Preventing Pressure Ulcers and Way Finding for Integrated Services in the Hospital and across the Community. All the groups were one-on-one time with a clinician, where they could ask more detailed questions to develop a deeper understanding of the brief. Following the briefings, there were a series of presentations from TUH and Amazon Web Services on Ethics, Data, Cyber Security and GDPR, all of which were very important elements when developing a technological solution to the challenges set.
The winners of the 2024 Healthcare Hackathon were:
Best Future Solution - Team Members: Mohamud Haroom; Ricardo Danganan Jnr.; Joven Sagrado & Keneith Atillo
The team had thought of every challenge everybody that might need to access a healthcare appointment, really strong presentation with passion and polish. The challenge they worked on was wayfinding for healthcare appointments in the community.
Most Innovative Solution - Team Members: Dillon Adamson, Collin Adeyinka-Macauley, Michael Murphy & Lauren O’Brien Farrell
The Judges thought this team did not just cover the brief, they thought beyond the brief and exceeded the expectations of the judges of what they could cover in their challenge. Their challenge was on bleeding disorders.
Best Use of Technology – Team Members: Antonin Chafiol, Robert Lichota & Krzysztof Szczurowski
This team had the document library challenge they wowed judges by using augmented reality meeting the brief and for thinking how it could be practically used in a working hospital.
Best Patient Benefit – Team Members Adrian Donnelly, Grzegorz Maniak; David Byrne & Thomas Lynch
For the blood disorders challenge they developed a very patient centric solution that was easy to use and covered the angles from a patient and healthcare professional point of view. They used very complicated technology to produce an easy solution to use.
Overall Hackathon Winner – Team Members Noor Isha Nadeem, Sayali Mote, Moyin Olusona & Irene Ogbevoen
This team responded to the Pressure Ulcer challenge. They demonstrated a very comprehensive understanding of the challenge, developing a prototype that could be cheap and easy to implement. Taking a holistic to developing a solution. The judges could not find an angle that they had not thought of!
Following the announcement of the 2024 Digital Health Innovation Challenge winners, David Wall, Chief Information Officer at TUH said: “The quality and diversity of this year’s submissions by TU Dublin students is exceptional. This year TUH challenged the students to consider the delivery of care across community care as well as acute care. It is so refreshing to see the different approaches students take to the challenges set. The Digital Health Innovation Challenge is such an energising event for everyone involved and continues to go strength to strength with 2024 our biggest event so far.”
Joanne Reynolds, Community Engagement Manager AWS, said: “We are thrilled to see another successful Innovation Challenge take place here at the TU Dublin Tallaght campus. At Amazon, one of our Leadership Principles is to “invent and simplify”- and the students at this Hackathon were doing just that all weekend. I am very excited to see where some of the ideas from this event will go. The students should be proud of the fact that their ideas will benefit patients and the wider hospital community.”
Commenting on the 2024 Transforming Healthcare Event, Seán McHugh, Head of Digital Transformation in the School of Enterprise Computing and Digital Transformation at TU Dublin, said, “I want to commend all TU Dublin students for their dedication, teamwork, and passion throughout the event. The quality of the ‘tech for good’ solutions, which went above and beyond the brief to address real-world healthcare challenges, was truly impressive. This level of innovation would not have been possible without the invaluable support of our partners – Tallaght University Hospital and AWS – who not only sponsor the event but also invest significant time and effort in designing thought-provoking challenges and offering technical and clinical expertise. Their contributions inspired our students to develop solutions that have the potential to transform lives."
