Jugaad-a-thon, a hackathon for the healthcare sector has seen participation double this year when compared to the last year.

Organised by GE Healthcare, along with Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies (CAMTech), which is sponsored by USAID, this year saw participation go up to 300 from 150 last year, working on affordable health technologies that address reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, organisers said.

This year we saw more involvement from all the stakeholders -- whether startups, care givers and pharmaceutical companies, said Elizabeth Bailey, CAMTech’s Director. “We believe that co-creation is the future of health care innovation, where clinicians sit side-by-side with engineers, entrepreneurs and industry to develop disruptive and impactful solutions,” she added.

Further, this year saw work in areas such as low-cost female contraceptives, different ways of delivering oxygen to remote health centers and gamification of family planning education.

“This year’s event saw 65 innovations developed which validates our belief that the way forward for innovating meaningful and impactful healthcare solutions is by co-creating these solutions with all stake holders of the healthcare eco-system,” said Milan Rao, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia.

Also, in this year’s Jugaad-a-thon, participants were given challenges that represented three of the most pressing needs in the area of maternal and infant care. CAMTech and USAID awarded prizes to Team Slow Forward, which came up with a video consultation solution for rural areas with low bandwidth. Team Peekaboo, developed an interactive gaming application that aids in identifying vision impairment for children and Team Shakthi Ki Yukthi, developed a low-cost female contraceptive tool.

Amongst other solutions, Nitrobooster, developed a cost-effective and steady supply of nitrous oxide for surgeries; O2-Matic, a low-cost method for oxygen production to address unpredictable availability of medical gases in limited resource settings; and Aawaazz, an affordable device that screens for hearing impairment in infants in under-served communities, won awards from GE.

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