#THINKOPENHEALTH: HACKATHON FOR HEALTH

Hackathon-winning device and app could help save lives
Contaminated water is a breeding ground for vector borne diseases. It can also be a source of dysentery, typhoid, cholera and various intestinal diseases. Sadly, it has adversely and consistently affected the health of countless Filipinos and has even claimed lives.
It is this health concern, a problem especially in rural areas and remote localities, that a group of students wish to address with their mobile device and application which won the grand prize in the recently concluded #thinkOPENhealth: Hackathon for Health held last April 16-17 at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati.

Team Quantum Hackers, composed of physics students from the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, created a mobile device which analyzes water quality.  Within twenty-four hours, team members Norman Mascarinas, Kit Guial, and Junel Bacong were able to come up with an affordable and user-friendly wireless sensor-based water quality testing device and app called Shine Herald that can test the salinity (saltiness) and turbidity (cloudiness) of water samples.
With a press of a button, barangay officials in far flung provinces can personally test the water using wireless sensor modules.  The results automatically sent to a preregistered Smart SIM card. In an ideal situation, agencies such as Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) can receive information on the quality of water in sites where sensors are installed.
The group was inspired to build the Shine Herald device and app by Guial’s sister, a nurse, and his friend, a public health student of UP Manila.  “During medical missions to the provinces, they told me that before they could go to a barangay, water quality has to be assessed first. It was a long and tedious process. Water had to be extracted from the locality and brought to Manila for analysis. Only then can the medical team go to the locality,” narrates Guial.
“Our goal is to identify which rural areas have polluted water which could lead to diseases. We want to equip barangays with affordable and easy- to-build instruments. The locals can test and assess water quality themselves. They just have to submerge the probe into the sample,” explains Mascarinas.
“As a startup, we could deploy to rural areas these devices with the help of the DOH. Many of these places are not easily accessible to government agencies. We want to automate the entire water testing and analysis process,” adds Bacong.
“The portable Shine Herald device, which cost just P4,000.00 to build, has a microcontroller that acts as its CPU. We wrote a program that can generate a message of 140 characters, very much like the maximum characters of a text message,” he says.

According to Mascarinas, “With the Shine Herald device and app, we have provided innovation in testing water quality, cutting red tape along the way. We will refine our product with more research and development through the DOST’s assistance.”
He says Team Quantum Hackers believes real solutions will eradicate public health problems. “This instrument is a step in solving public health problems in the country. The barangay officials can ask government agencies for assistance before an outbreak happens. If, for example, the water sample tested suggests the possibility of a dengue or diarrhea outbreak, lives could be saved if their locality could be warned and counter-measures are set in place.”
A total of twenty-one teams composed of IT professionals and students, and health professionals competed in the 24-hour hackathon organized by PLDT wireless unit—Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) in coordination with SmartDevNet, the developer community of Smart. (END)
For bagging the grand prize, Team Quantum took home P100,000 in cash plus assorted gadgets.  They also have a chance to be incubated by the DOH, the DOST-PCHRD and Smart – IdeaSpace.
The hackathon was held to encourage developers to create plug-ins for the SHINE OS+, an open-source electronic medical record (EMR) system developed by the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center in partnership with Smart. It also aims to find ways to connect and inter-operate with different systems to SHINE OS+ and create innovations that can ultimately assist local government and national health agencies in improving healthcare services. (END)              
A group of physics students from the University of the Philippines Diliman bagged the gold prize in the #thinkOPENhealth: Hackathon for Health held recently at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati. 
Twenty-one teams composed of IT professionals and students, doctors and nurses competed in the 24-hour hackathon organized by PLDT wireless unit—Smart Communications, Inc. (Smart), the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Science and Technology – Philippine Council for Research and Development (DOST-PCHRD) in coordination with SmartDevNet, the developer community of Smart Communications, Inc.
The hackathon aims to encourage developers create plug-ins for the Shine OS+, an open-source electronic medical record (EMR) system developed by the Ateneo Java Wireless Competency Center in partnership with Smart Communications, Inc. Used mainly by local government-operated healthcare facilities as an EMR (electronic medical record), SHINE OS+ has opened its API to provide access to other systems to enable data sharing or data exchange for interoperability that can greatly impact the function of the local government and national health agencies in improving its healthcare services, adhering to its goal on Universal Healthcare program. Apart from creating plug-ins for SHINE, the Hack also aims in finding ways to connect and inter-operate with different systems to SHINE and create innovations. The Hack has shown the power of transparency and collaboration in finding new ways to approach old problems.
Paul Pajo, senior developer evangelist of Smart explained that Shine OS system was made similar to the basic content management system (CMS) with EMR in mind. “Shine has a lot of features and they have interoperability with other systems. The developers are now tasked to see how to exploit these interoperabilities by creating a plug-in,” Pajo elaborated.
Dr. Kenneth Hartigan Go, undersecretary of the Department of Health praises the real-world, innovative solutions presented by the hackers. He declared, “The hackathon helps our department think out of the box. If we want to have better outcomes, we should not be doing things again and again and expect different outcomes. We intend to adopt the innovative solutions that have been brought up by these young people.”

Team Quantum Hackers won the gold award with their mobile wireless sensor-based water quality testing device and app called Shine Herald. This tests the salinity (saltiness) and turbidity (cloudiness) of water samples. Using a Smart SIM card built into the same apparatus, water quality results may be sent automatically by barangay officials from across the country to the DOH and the DOST in Manila through the Shine Herald app. In the future, other water quality parameters can be measured. This is found crucial in the prevention and monitoring of water-borne illnesses that has a great public health impact, offer a real time potential tool to assist in field investigations and can save lives. Team members Norman Mascarinas, a graduate student, and undergrads Kit Guial and Junelle Bacong, won P100,000.00 and assorted gadgets.

Team Chunky Monkeys bagged the silver award for their entry Omni Health System. Elise Milo, Craige Milo, Bernadette Milo and Lloyd Ocampo developed the Omni Health System to make electronic medical records (EMRs) of patients accessible even from a different system. Unlike before when a patient’s EMR can only be accessed from the system of origin, Omni Health makes accessing EMRs from another system possible. Team Chunky Monkeys won P50,000.00 plus various gadgets with their innovative solution of incentivizing the hosting of EMRs in the RHUs (Rural Health Units) using the Ethereum blockchain technology and its built-in "smart contracts" capability.

The bronze award went to Team Jeepers Creepers. PJ Sales, Jon Tabac, and Paolo Balleza created the  Hx Fact Finder app to connect primary health institutions like community maternity clinics with larger health institutions like city hospitals. When patients go to provincial clinics, the Hx Fact Finder will help health workers get medical advice from doctors typically based in cities.  Team Jeepers Creepers won P30,000.00 plus assorted gadgets.
Aside from the cash prizes, the winning teams will have a chance to be incubated by the DOH, the DOST-PCHRD and SMART- IdeaSpace.
The other winners are: SHINE OS+ Award – Team Kembot (Penshin, a module developed for SHINE OS focused on pediatricians and data analytics for growth progress data); DOST-PCHRD Award – Team Kapit Bisig (Kabit Bisig App, a facility inventory and supply planning module that allows managers at different facilities to manage drugs, supplies, equipment and processes to achieve efficiency through data driven planning and decision making) ; DOH Award – Team Clutch (Ready Steth Go, an app which uses Android technology); and the  Student Award – Blastoise Brigade (Presky, an app which utilizes SHINE OS+' software and API to collect and visualize the data of prescribed drugs to sell in pharmaceutical companies to help companies optimize their resources and allocate them properly without much waste).
SHINE OS+ has been aligned with the Philippines eHealth Strategic Framework and Plan 2013-2017 of the Department of Health and the Department of Science and Technology. Its system and implementation are also aligned with the country’s health policies and programs. # Source – www.doh.gov.ph