92
A. Mantzavinou et al.
the most progress. CAMTech organizes innovation workshops and entrepreneur boot
camps that are run by professionals from industry, investment, clinical, and technical fields—event goals may include product engineering and realization, clinical
validation and testing, business strategy, IP and regulatory strategy, financing and
investment, and commercialization strategies. CAMTech is also continuously working to assess the value of hackathons. One means of accomplishing this is through
follow-up surveys whose results will be presented in future publications.
8.3.3 Case Studies
Co-creation Labs
The staffing and initiatives of the CAMTech Co-creation Lab in Mbarara illustrate
the influence that health hackathons in LMICs have had on the local innovator community. The Co-creation Lab manager is a computer engineer and alumnus of the
Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) who is a former participant in CAMTech health hackathons. Many of the staff at the Co-creation Lab have
been introduced to the principles of co-creation by participating in workshops and
hackathons held by CAMTech locally and abroad. This has increased their confidence
in their capacity to create novel medical technologies applicable to their setting and
potentially appropriate for reverse innovation. Examples include a locally made hand
sanitizer to aid with infection control called Sanidrop, a modular continuous airway
pressure device (mCPAP) currently under development in the Co-creation Lab, as
well as a digital infusion monitor and control device, a wireless physiological monitor, and an automatic surgical suction pump controller (“CAMTech Uganda,”). The
Co-creation Lab has recently launched the MUST Innovation Cafes and the Students
Innovation Internship Program, both intended to foster interdisciplinary creativity
and innovative thinking in healthcare by MUST students (“CAMTech Uganda,”).
Startup Ventures
O2-Matic, one of the winning teams of the 2015 Jugaadathon held in Bangalore,
comprised engineers, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and industrial designers. This team
developed the concept for a low-cost method for oxygen production to address unpredictable availability of medical gases in limited resource settings. O2-Matic won a
Post-Hackathon Award, sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Terumo, to continue working on their project. They
used this funding to iterate on their proof-of-concept prototype and are currently
filing for intellectual property and pitching their idea to potential investors with the
hopes of starting a company in the future.
Startup companies are not just an aspiration for health hackathon winners; several
successful ventures in fact got their inception at hackathons. The Augmented Infant
Resuscitator (AIR) was a project started at a health hackathon in Boston jointly
organized between CAMTech and MIT Hacking Medicine by a team including an
A. Mantzavinou et al.
the most progress. CAMTech organizes innovation workshops and entrepreneur boot
camps that are run by professionals from industry, investment, clinical, and technical fields—event goals may include product engineering and realization, clinical
validation and testing, business strategy, IP and regulatory strategy, financing and
investment, and commercialization strategies. CAMTech is also continuously working to assess the value of hackathons. One means of accomplishing this is through
follow-up surveys whose results will be presented in future publications.
8.3.3 Case Studies
Co-creation Labs
The staffing and initiatives of the CAMTech Co-creation Lab in Mbarara illustrate
the influence that health hackathons in LMICs have had on the local innovator community. The Co-creation Lab manager is a computer engineer and alumnus of the
Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) who is a former participant in CAMTech health hackathons. Many of the staff at the Co-creation Lab have
been introduced to the principles of co-creation by participating in workshops and
hackathons held by CAMTech locally and abroad. This has increased their confidence
in their capacity to create novel medical technologies applicable to their setting and
potentially appropriate for reverse innovation. Examples include a locally made hand
sanitizer to aid with infection control called Sanidrop, a modular continuous airway
pressure device (mCPAP) currently under development in the Co-creation Lab, as
well as a digital infusion monitor and control device, a wireless physiological monitor, and an automatic surgical suction pump controller (“CAMTech Uganda,”). The
Co-creation Lab has recently launched the MUST Innovation Cafes and the Students
Innovation Internship Program, both intended to foster interdisciplinary creativity
and innovative thinking in healthcare by MUST students (“CAMTech Uganda,”).
Startup Ventures
O2-Matic, one of the winning teams of the 2015 Jugaadathon held in Bangalore,
comprised engineers, clinicians, entrepreneurs, and industrial designers. This team
developed the concept for a low-cost method for oxygen production to address unpredictable availability of medical gases in limited resource settings. O2-Matic won a
Post-Hackathon Award, sponsored by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Terumo, to continue working on their project. They
used this funding to iterate on their proof-of-concept prototype and are currently
filing for intellectual property and pitching their idea to potential investors with the
hopes of starting a company in the future.
Startup companies are not just an aspiration for health hackathon winners; several
successful ventures in fact got their inception at hackathons. The Augmented Infant
Resuscitator (AIR) was a project started at a health hackathon in Boston jointly
organized between CAMTech and MIT Hacking Medicine by a team including an