Hackathon 22 Unmet Needs
A hackathon (a portmanteau of “hack” and “marathon”) is a short event, usually over a few days, designed to get groups of participants collaboratively producing a product that aims to solve a problem, or “unmet need” within a particular domain. For the MTF Hackathon, these are:
Sustainability in Hospitals
From single-use PPE to plastic packaging, waste has been a long-standing problem in hospitals, with the Covid-19 pandemic only adding to this. Such pieces of equipment are essential to the delivery of safe healthcare, but are an undeniable burden on services and the environment. This unmet need provides a topical challenge that faces many boundaries to resolution.
The future of food
With pre-packaged food becoming so readily available and affordable, we hardly know the contents of what we’re eating. Changes in diet can aid the management of many health concerns, with new technologies - calorie trackers, food scanners, personalised meal plans - providing a better understanding of this. However, more work can be done to tackle the issue, and this challenge allows us to think out of the box and use food as medicine to innovate healthcare.
Chronic respiratory disorder (CRD)
CRDs present a considerable challenge worldwide, with WHO estimating 3 million deaths annually from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease alone. Early diagnosis of CDRs is crucial in providing life-saving treatments, but present a big challenge due to their difficulty. This challenge is looking at diagnostic tools *or solutions which improve the daily lives of CRD patients.