Designers, technicians, engineers, patients, doctors and entrepreneurs came together last week at the first ever hackathon organized by the gdhub Nepal team at the eHealth and Telemedicine Program of B.P.Koirala Institute of Health Sciences in Dharan, Nepal.

Under the theme of “Hacking Common Health Problems: Providing uncommon but practical & human-centric solutions”, five teams tackled challenges related to Nepal’s healthcare system.
Led by gdhub Nepal Coordinator and Associate Professor Dr. Pramendra Prasad, the event not only created many opportunities for networking, but also allowed the teams to come up with five excellent solutions.

After two days of passionate work, a winner was chosen: Team SHISHUCARE won a cash prize of Nrs. 60,000 with their prototype app allowing community health volunteers to connect with pediatricians regarding neonatal problems. It also allows health workers to grade the severity of problems of neonates through a simple sequence of questions and answers.

The winning team was selected by a jury of three experts:

  • Prof. Dr. Narendra Bhatta, who is the Focal Person of eHealth and Telemedicine Program of BPKIHS and Professor and Head of the Department of Pulmonary, Critical care and Sleep Medicine.
  • Dr. Subash Pyakurel, Meditech Director, Mediflow Solution Pvt. Ltd.
  • Mr. Saroj Lamichhane, certified System Auditor (CISA) with over 17 years of industry experience in Network/System Administration and over 10 years in Information Security Management and founder of the first VA/PT service provider in Nepal.

The jury also awarded prizes to the first and second runner up teams. Team Sahayatri provided a solution by developing a prototype mobile app for Hospital Navigation System and Team Spring developed a Mobile and Web App for healthcare workers to discuss common problems.

Looking back at the event, Dr. Pramendra Prasad notes that the aim of fostering interdisciplinary connections among participants and experts has been successfully achieved and innovative solutions have been created, which may serve as a foundation for future work.