Tech innovations diagnose healthcare, offer cures in the form of mobile and web based solutions

In remote areas, a visit to the clinic, doctor, and hospital, can entail a serious and expensive trek. That’s just one reason the health industry needs to be hacked, so to speak, and made accessible to all.

This is exactly what happened recently at the Innovation Hub at Groote Schuur Hospital. Over 50 healthcare workers, academics, software developers, entrepreneurs and designers gathered for a day to co-create mobile and web-based solutions to address healthcare challenges.

The event, dubbed The Health hackathon, was hosted by the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ Inclusive Healthcare Innovation.

The event was hosted in partnership with Silicon Cape, in an attempt to draw in and connect the Cape Town technology community to the health community.

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“We believe that reframing health challenges as health innovation needs will enable leaders, health workers and citizens to see opportunities for co-creating new solutions through collaboration,” says Lindi van Niekerk, Inclusive Healthcare Innovation Lead.

The organisers say that the event was held to develop human-centered technological solutions to address healthcare challenges, to foster innovative problem solving, and to build relationships across different sectors.

“Healthcare will always be about people, those who deliver it at the front line and the patients who need to be active participants in their treatment, so innovation cannot happen remotely from the people its intended to help,” says Carolyn Clark, Senior Manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The hackers worked under the supervision of Carolyn Clark, Senior Manager at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Dr. Ernst Janse van Rensburg (Vula Mobile), Matty Cohen (Silicon Cape), Dr. Denise Botha (Bertha Centre) and Vasili Sofiadellis (Director, Visions2Ventures)

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At the end of the event, winners were announced and prizes were given out.

Pulse, an app created to incentivise patients to manage chronic conditions and stay healthy through a points system took first place. Pulse is meant to help patients keep track of their health status and medication needs.

The app’s functions include reminding users to take their medication or attend appointments. Users are also able to add notes on their symptoms and response to medication.

The app also has a function that will assist its users with the financial burden of good health. The app rewards users through a points system which could be redeemed at Pick ‘n Pay, Clicks or Dischem.

The runners-up app was CommunityConnect, an app that enables users to connect themselves and others to quality social and community resources in their area. The app plans to promote health through connecting communities to existing social resources, including community safety, income support, counselling services, shelter and housing, safe houses, training and education services, and wellness programs.

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Apart from the winners, other apps that were developed on the day include MediPoint, an app for patient to save medical information, UPYA, an app to help patients recover after being discharged from physical rehabilitation services, MyHospital, an app to compile information about medical facilities in South Africa, including information for interns, Diagnostic app, build to assist in patient management and diagnostics in rural areas.

The winning team, Pulse, won support to develop the app to the value of R10 000.