Hacking to Create Better Health!

Innovation and teamwork are two of our core values and Mylan 2018 exemplified these ideals to the fullest. At Mylan, the Hackathon initiative focuses not only on the current challenges in Healthcare, but also on developing solutions for the future. Conducted at Mylan’s Bangalore office, the event was abuzz with the brightest minds at work during the hackathon challenge. More than 500 individuals across 44 cities had registered for the event, from which around 220 were shortlisted for the final challenge that was held on 13 and 14 October.

This year, the Hackathon teams were asked to ‘Hack for a Cause’ to find creative solutions to leading healthcare challenges such as adverse event / side effect reporting of pharmaceutical products; detection of early signs and symptoms of cancer and addressing the resource scarcity problem by automating preliminary analysis of reports; a patient’s real-world outcome tracking through technology/AI; patient’s adherence to TB treatment and traceability of Mylan’s ARV drugs to the end consumer. The Hackathon participants were divided in two categories– professional and students and were asked to provide a solution for any one of these challenges. Mylan coaches and IT mentors were available throughout the event to guide the teams in developing these solutions.

The environment was electrifying as people from diverse professions and capabilities, came together under one roof with the objective of creating innovative solutions for real world health challenges. The event kicked off with Mylan representatives sharing presentations to explain the real-world business challenges, followed by participants building solutions through the day at the venue. The second and the final day had teams finalizing their solutions and presenting them to the panel of judges. Teams were judged on unique parameters like uniqueness, radical thinking, (add other technical/non-technical judging parameters). In the professional hackers’ category, team Smart from Atos won for their novel solution to adherence of treatment of Tuberculosis patients and in the Students Category, the team from Sri Sairam Institute of Technology won for its solution for tracking Antiretroviral (ARV) medicines till it reaches the consumer.

Mylan held its first hackathon in India in 2016 and has been fueling the push for new creative and innovative solutions. Initiatives such as these foster engagement and collaboration between students, professionals and institutions, to develop innovative and cost-effective solutions for real-world health problems and enhance access to affordable medicines.

At Mylan, Hackathon is not core to what we do today. Hackathon is core to what we could do tomorrow.