What a Hack(athon)!
Welcome address on Hackathon Day 1 by Prof Tan Hak Koon
The SingHealth Hackathon 2023, an event jointly conducted by the SingHealth Graduate Medical Education (GME), the Resident’s Committee (Education & Research Subcommittee) and Padang & Co, an Innovation organiser, saw 70 participants – including healthcare staff across various departments and hospitals in SingHealth and some polytechnic students, coming together to identify problem areas of wastage encountered within the healthcare setting and generate feasible solutions to overcome them. Organised in March this year, the two-day event witnessed many creative and ingenious ideas being presented with the national goal of advancing sustainable development "Towards Zero Waste" as part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
The challenge statements were:
1. Developing innovative technologies and solutions to minimise waste;
2. Designing monitoring systems to quantify reduction, reuse and recycling of waste products; and
3. Creating awareness and building strategies to shift the sustainability mindset.
Over the two days, mentors and subject matter experts from the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), SingHealth Environmental Services, Operations and Intensive Care Unit, as well as digital innovators from Eden Strategy and PricewaterhouseCoopers gathered together to provide valuable insight and direction to hone each group’s thought processes.
A pitch clinic on the second day allowed the groups an opportunity to finetune their presentation before their hard work culminated in a 3-minute presentation was shown to a panel of 5 judges from SIT, the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), the Sustainability Partnerships Office of the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, as well as SingHealth’s Group Chief Operating Officer, Mr Tan Jack Thian. Judging criteria were the effectiveness, impact and uniqueness of the proposed solution, and the feasibility and ease of its adoption. One minute was allowed for a Question and Answer session between the judges and each team.
Participants were extremely passionate and many ideas harnessing advents in technology were presented to a high standard of professionalism. Ultimately, two teams tied for the third prize of $500 in NTUC vouchers, with the second prize being $1000 in NTUC vouchers and the first prize being $1500 in NTUC vouchers.
After the Hackathon, we stayed behind to speak to Dr Hema Salkade from CGH Pathology, Andreas from SingHealth CIOO, Alexander from NDCS CIOO, and Adele, Anaesthesia Acupuncturist from SKH.
1. Why did you sign up for the Hackathon?
Dr Salkade: I was keen to see like-minded people gathered together focused on maximising resources and saving the environment.
Andreas: I was very interested in sustainability and felt that wastage is very prevalent. I was also intrigued by the concept of "Zero Waste" and am keen to advocate for sustainability!
2. What are your key takeaways from the event?
Dr Salkade: Changing mindsets will create awareness and lead to changes in behaviour.
Andreas: Many eye opening ideas on reducing waste eg. technical, operational, etc.
Alexander: This event was a good channel to convey the importance of sustainability efforts to higher management.
Adele: How a Hackathon works! Learnt critical skills to approach issues and distill ideas into a pitch.
Participants being briefed on the challenge statements Teams hard at work brainstorming
Teams hard at work brainstorming Closing address on Day 2 by Prof Fong Kok Yong
Team PharmaGreen (3rd prize), which sought to reduce the number of plastics being dispensed from pharmacies by encouraging patients to bring their own plastics to store their packed medication in and imposing a small fee for plastic bags.
Team LiL Lumos (2nd prize), which found that many lit corridors were exposed to sunlight and proposed using lux and motion sensor lights and wireless nodes to limit lighting to the necessary occasions and intensities.
Team Druggers (1st prize), which identified the improper disposal of intravenous medication such as Propofol in Operating Theatres and recommended an alternative inexpensive, accessible and safe method of disposal incorporating recycled materials.
In this Hackathon with "Towards Zero Waste" as its theme, areas of wastage in food, water, electricity and plastic within the clinical and hospital settings were being explored. Many plausible ideas were also generated, for instance food waste sorter, AI/data-driven monitoring system for computer usage, and reverse osmosis of rejected water from dialysis. Harmful environmental practices were also targeted and tackled at, and examples of challenges are the inordinate plastic bags dispensed by pharmacies, environmental costs of meat consumption, energy costs of low operating theatre temperatures and unused recycled air, improper drug disposal, single use syringes for vaccination, and surplus dental materials. Overall, the SingHealth Hackathon 2023 was a fruitful event injected with evident passion and synergies from all our participants!
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