Their idea was simple: bring brilliant people with different perspectives together to tackle challenges in healthcare.
When medical students Daniel Raff, Ameen Amanian (MD 2018) participated in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) GrandHacks , they knew they needed to bring something similar to UBC. At the event, more than 400 of the brightest minds in healthcare came together to create viable, interdisciplinary healthcare solutions. Both young students were inspired by the real world solutions, which were developed in just one weekend.
Earlier this month, 40 engineering, 30 healthcare, and 10 design students gathered at for Hatching Health, Raff and Amanian’s version of what they experienced at MIT. The duo worked with their co-organizer, Cameron Stuart, a Biomedical Engineering Masters student, to bring this interdisciplinary, innovative event to UBC.
On the first evening people gathered for an opportunity to network and connect with the other participants. Many expressed their excitement around being in a room with so many like-minded and passionate individuals. The following morning, 36 healthcare problem pitches took place. By mid-morning, teams had formed around various problem pitches – with 10 teams formed in total.
The rest of the participants’ time was spent ‘hatching’. Teams were resourceful and maintained excitement throughout. The organizers and faculty supporters were impressed with how resourceful these teams were, many working well into the early morning hours on their various projects.
The final pitches were very strong and some judges complained about how difficult it was going to be to choose 4 winning teams out of the 10.
The winning teams were:
The Geyer Family First Place Award
Smart Curve: This problem was pitched by a practicing Pediatric Occupational Therapist who found a specific pain in fitting wheelchairs for children with spinal problems. The problem is that the process takes 3-4 days with 3-4 separate fittings by the OT in order to complete. Usually this is done over an entire work week. Anyone outside Vancouver has to get to the major urban centre to get this done. The team developed a method to make a 3D contour map and leverage telemedicine to uncouple the analysis from the production.. i.e. turn a 4-day arduous procedure into a 1-day procedure with the final product being mailed to the participant. They also spoke about the additional data for understanding disease and deciding interventions that this kind of tech could leverage — and this data may be another viable revenue option.
VCHRI Second Place Award
UpRight: This is a smart walker developed specifically for patients with Parkinson’s. A little background about the disease is that patients can get (a) Freezegait – they will stop mid-step. This can lead to falls as their walker escapes them. Falls are a major expense to the system, and increase morbidity to patients. (b) A visual, auditory, or tactile ‘cue’ can be used to get someone out of this ‘frozen’ state. The textbook example is to put a piece of paper on the floor a few steps in front of the patient, they will then be able to unfreeze and walk to this point. This team developed a system to improve walkers – their system senses if the patient’s gait is frozen and then automatically brakes so that the walker doesn’t slip away. Then a laser is projected as a ‘cue’ to prompt the patient, and once they step, the brakes are released. It was definitely the most impressive prototype of the weekend.
UBC Biomedical Engineering Hardware Award
Companion: A GPS wearable with instructions for those with early dementia. People with early dementia can get lost – often near their homes. These patients often struggle with losing their independence. The product takes GPS and provides the user with directions on how to return home – if they’d like to go home. They were differentiated from other products on the market in that they didn’t compromise independence.
HumanAPI Software Award
Happi: An app for those suffering with depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. Their goal is to integrate wearables data and provide clinically-validated surveys to users. They also integrated a ‘gamification’ with a watering plant and certain interventions, such as exercising, which grow the plant.
Doctors of BC Collaboration Award
StrollSight – Stroller modifications for blind people. The Engineer that pitched this idea had discussed this problem with an acquaintance of hers who is a blind mother. This mother’s problem was shared by other blind parents – difficulty with pushing a stroller while using their other hand for navigation with a walking stick. This either compromises the safety of their child or their balance. Strollsight’s solution is a stroller modification to allow tactile sensation (vibration on the handles) as opposed to a separate walking stick. This way the user has that extra hand free.
For more information on Hatching Health, visit www.hatchinghealth.ca