40 medical and pharmacy students took part in the Health Hack competition organized by AstraZeneca in cooperation with DHI Cluster Bulgaria. For two consecutive days, young people used their knowledge to offer creative solutions to real problems in medicine.
The Health Hack contest is held in Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Serbia. So far, it has been held in 3 of the countries, with over 100 participants. The Health Hack in Croatia is to be held in autumn. In Bulgaria, the initiative was implemented in partnership with the Digital Health and Innovation Cluster Bulgaria (DHI Cluster). Students applied their skills and proposed solutions to problems related to oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. The future medics and pharmacists themselves chose the field in which to develop and present their ideas.
In the field of oncology, students worked on a project to create multidisciplinary teams through digital platforms, or more specifically how to centrally share medical information about a patient to provide the best possible treatment. One of the tasks was also the development of an idea for identifying individuals at high risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) or a system to help medical practitioners to encourage the timely initiation of therapy. Participants had less than two days to develop their ideas, relying on the guidance and advice of their mentors from AstraZeneca and DHI Cluster. Each team, consisting of 3 to 5 people, had 6 minutes to present their ideas.
“This is the first edition of Health Hack that we are implementing, but we plan to turn it into an annual tradition. We are impressed by the enthusiasm, responsibility and scientific knowledge with which the young people approached the preparation and presentation of the projects. All participants today are winners, and we believe that their creative ideas will be applied for the benefit of patients,” said Gergana Pencheva, Public Affairs and Market Access Manager at AstraZeneca Bulgaria.
The students’ proposals were evaluated by Milena Stoycheva, Minister of Innovation (June 2023 – April 2024), founder and long-time director of Junior Achievements Bulgaria and co-founder of DHI Cluster, Kalin Dimchev, General Manager of Microsoft for the Adriatic region, and Gergana Pencheva, Public Affairs Manager at AstraZeneca – representatives of the DHI Cluster board.
“I am an extremely great supporter and defender of this approach in the development of economies, of the world, of education. I am excited when I see that people are seriously thinking and looking for solutions, because the most important thing is to be a creator first of all, and not to be a passive consumer,” said Milena Stoycheva, who is also one of the founders and the first chairman of DHI Cluster.
The winning teams Innovative Healers and eHealth Explorers, with the projects developed by them, sent the messages “It is not shameful or scary to go to the doctor” and expressed their desire to have access to quality healthcare for everyone. They get the opportunity for career counseling with representatives of AstraZeneca management team, as well as invitations to special internal and external events of DHI Cluster.
The participants expressed their gratitude for the opportunity to be placed in a real working environment and to develop practical projects in support of Bulgarian patients.
