Hackathons are a valuable educational tool for stimulating collaboration between students from apparently distant educational backgrounds and encouraging the exchange of skills: this is why the Italian partnership of the European project CoVe CARE about IT, led by Apro Formazione, organised the event 'Generation HealthTech: Digital Solutions for Digital Health' on 12. and 13. November 2024 at the BioIndustry Park Silvano Fumero in Colleretto Giacosa, headquarters of Polo BioPMed, a cluster for innovation in the health and life sciences sector of the Piedmont Region.
Five teams of 30 students from 6 schools in Piedmont competed to formulate a solution to a common task: 'How to facilitate access to telemedicine by patients with limited digital skills'.
The challenge, presented by T4Med, a division of Tesisquare dedicated to telemedicine, saw the students of the professional qualification course for health and social workers of Apro Formazione, the Liceo Scientifico Statale 'Leonardo Cocito', the IISS Piera Cillario Ferrero, the ITS ICT Foundation for Information and Communication Technologies, the ITS Academy Biotecnologie Piemonte Foundation and the Degree Course in Nursing of the University of Eastern Piedmont (UPO) working together in five groups. Supporting them in the development of their projects were thirteen professionals from the digital, IT, business and marketing worlds, who shared their experiences and skills with the participants.
After an initial joint team-building event, organised by B-Teatro of Turin, the students were able to put their technical and problem-solving skills and their cooperation and interaction skills into practice. After all, the combination of hard and soft skills applied to a real problem is the strength of hackathons, which allow participants to experience a form of active learning.
At the end of the design phase, the teams were asked to present their ideas through a 10-minute pitch: the five members of the jury, selected from the project partners, including ASL CN2, and the main digital health stakeholders, assessed the proposed solutions focusing on originality and innovation; feasibility and transferability; systematic vision; completeness and comprehensiveness.
The winner was team number five with its proposal for interface optimisation and extended functionality for patients with different disabilities.
To further spread the opportunity to participate in the digital transition of the health system and to involve and stimulate students from all over Europe, an international online hackathon open to all interested schools will be held on 13 and 14 March 2025.
