Healthcare Hackathon 2022
Taking place over two days, the second annual Health Hackathon brought together over 40 students from across TU Dublin last month, with students asked to develop solutions for five challenges set by Tallaght University Hospital (TUH) clinicians.
The students were split into groups and given one-on-one time with each clinician; they could ask more detailed questions to develop a deeper understanding of the brief. Following the briefings, there were a series of presentations from the TUH, and Amazon Web Services on Ethics, Data, Cyber Security and GDPR, all of which were very important elements for consideration as part of the development of any solution to the challenges set. Finally, TU Dublin presented a technical presentation on fast prototyping using cloud services. The students worked through Friday night to develop their solution, working on posters and working prototypes, following ahead of the judging panel reviewing their work.
The winners were:
First Place Warfarin Patient App. The winning team of Andrzej Zero, Marta de la Cuadra Lozano, Jorge Jiménez García and Csanad Alattyanyi developed the concept of an app for home monitoring of patients on warfarin. The judges described the solution as "applicable, relevant, patient centred and hopefully something that they could see patients and clinicians using in the near future".
Second Place Weigh Up in the Clouds - Greg Marviak and Adrian Donnelly developed an app that will capture a patient's weight at home and in the Hospital. Having an accurate and up-to-date patient weight is key to prescribing medication, alongside nutritional and fluid assessments that will be accessible by the patient and members of their clinical circle of care.
Third Place Way Finder - Jason Fung and Alan Byrne developed a Wayfinder app to enable patients, families and new staff members to navigate the campus using their mobile devices. This is a very practical and helpful development for several stakeholders.
The action took place over 24 hours from Friday afternoon until Saturday afternoon in the Synergy Centre of the University's Tallaght Campus and South Dublin County Council's AWS-sponsored Think Big Space.
"It’s great to be back doing these events on Campus.’ said the Head of the School of Enterprise, Computing and Digital, Dr Barry Feeney. "The students really loved the opportunity to work work with Clinicians, AWS Experts and TU Dublin academics on projects that can impact Healthcare solutions. There was lots of pizza consumed to help work through the night."
David Wall, CIO of Tallaght University Hospital, a key moving force behind the event said ‘Tallaght University Hospital has always been innovative and we are delighted to be a leading partner in this activity with our partners in South Dublin’.
From AWS in Communities, Joanne Reynolds was keen to point out that Amazon love supporting great activities like this in our local area.
Commenting on the event, one of the judges and one of the creators of the challenges set for the students, Professor Catherine Wall, Consultant Nephrologist and Director of Quality, Safety & Risk Management at TUH, said, "I left the event with an immense sense of energy and possibilities for the future. I learnt a lot from the students over the weekend. We have strengthened collaborations between ourselves and TU Dublin and further fostered relationships with very bright, talented people. I look forward to seeing these ideas realised for our patients and staff and other healthcare settings in Ireland".
Róisín Faherty, Head of Information Systems at the School of Enterprise Computing & Digital Transformation at TU Dublin, said, "Our students have generated amazing ideas in the 24 hours of the challenge. They have benefitted greatly from this experience, being presented with real healthcare challenges, getting to question clinicians directly, receiving in-depth briefings from Amazon Web Services, and presenting and communicating their solutions. This event is an incredible opportunity to enhance our student's education".