Hackathon helps provide solutions to oncologists

A hackathon to provide solutions to problems faced by oncologists was held here recently.

A press release issued here said that the Kasturba Medical College (KMC) Research Cell and Manipal Comprehensive Cancer Care Centre (MCCCC), in collaboration with the Innovation Centre of Manipal Academy of Higher Education, organised a first-of-its-kind hackathon in the country and the occasion was the first anniversary of MCCCC.

The event, Hacking Cancer, brought together undergraduate and postgraduate students from all disciplines of sister institutes of MAHE to be creative and exhibit their innovative talents.

The problem statements included the need for blood donation, guide for Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL) patients and requirement of low-cost radiation oncology devices. The participants then had to form a team based on shared interests and work on developing the solution model.

At the conclusion of the problem-solving block, each one of the teams presented their solutions to a panel of expert judges.

The three best teams that were declared winners were: “ALLBetter”, which proposed tracking and boosting patient compliance by using simple data entry and record system. The team comprised Arushi Bhura, Fiza Jakhar, Shreyak Sehgal and Rahul Kondaveti.

The other team was “Donate Blood”, which proposed an idea of creating an application for saving lives and increasing voluntary blood donation by linking it with social media. The team members were Shreya Joshi, Disha Jindal, Sanskritie Sashikanth, Reuben Nellissery and Sushant Prabhu.

And the third one was, “Lumi Flex”, which developed an illuminating flexible abdominal retractor with light source and manually adjusted tip. The team comprised Shreya Lakshim, Garima Makhija, Namrata Datta and Rahul Mendiratta.