More than 1,000 young Saudi hackers – comprising clinicians, engineers, scientists, designers, and entrepreneurs – participated at the Convention Center at Princess Noura University in Riyadh on Thursday at the world’s largest health hackathon.
Organised by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) with support from Badir Program for Technology Incubators and Accelerators, and in collaboration with MIT Hacking Medicine, the three-day hackathon, titled “Reimagining Healthcare in Saudi Arabia”, saw 1,000 hackers compete in 10 different healthcare challenges to advance the design of biomedical technologies towards meeting a target of over 20 biotech startups. The winners were announced at the end of the competition.
“Aligned with the Saudi Ministry of Health’s Model of Care, the healthcare challenges, ranging from – blockchain and AI for health, cancer innovation track, and assistive technology and ageing – are aimed to energise and connect the best talents across the health ecosystem in the health and technology sectors to solve the healthcare’s biggest challenges and teach healthcare entrepreneurship and digital strategies to scale medicine in the Kingdom,” said Dr. Anas Alfaris, Vice President for Research Institutes at KACST during his opening speech at the hackathon .
He emphasized that the Hackathon will help instill the culture of creativity and innovation in the field of digital health among Saudi youth who will compete to generate new ideas that will improve and enhance the medical services and level of healthcare in the Kingdom.
Healthcare has been identified as one of the primary focus areas under the Saudi Vision 2030 and National Transformation Program 2020 in order to enhance the quality of healthcare services and facilities in the country.
“It is our privilege to host the world’s largest health hackathons in Saudi Arabia. The program will offer a collaborative environment for the best and brilliant minds to be a part of an exciting and inspiring event that will impact the way healthcare is delivered to millions of people in Saudi Arabia and across the globe,” said Nawaf Al Sahhaf, Chief Executive Officer of the Badir Program for Technology Incubators and Accelerators.
Since its inception in 2011, MIT Hacking Medicine has facilitated nearly 150 hackathons across over 30 countries. Teams coming out of these events have successfully joined local accelerators, raising over $175 million in investment funding, and partnering with healthcare institutions or companies towards piloting their solutions.
MIT Hacking Medicine has previously collaborated with leading organizations and corporations such as The Kauffman Foundation, Massachusetts General Hospital, Emergency Nurses Association, Pfizer, Microsoft, Samsung, GE, Merck, and AthenaHealth.