CAMTech India's IInd Annual “Jugaad-a-thon” Attracts 300 Innovators

CAMTech INDIA—a United States Agency for International Development (USAID/India) funded public-private partnership which aims to accelerate medical technology innovation for reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) in India— will hold its second annual hack-a-thon (“Jugaad-a-thon”) in Bengaluru on June 26-28, 2015. Organized in partnership with Lattice Innovations and hosted by GE Healthcare India, the event brings together some of the world’s brightest minds to develop innovative and affordable health technologies that can help save the lives of women and children across India.

“We are building on the success of last year’s Jugaad-a-thon by bringing together a highly motivated and diverse group of innovators to tackle important challenges like newborn survival, safe births and family planning,” said CAMTech’s Director, Elizabeth Bailey. “The CAMTech INDIA platform allows us to harness ground-breaking ideas from a talented community of innovators from all over the country who are united by a common goal of saving lives.”

The CAMTech INDIA Jugaad-a-thon (derived from the Hindi word “jugaad” meaning an innovative fix or work-around), invites clinicians, engineers, entrepreneurs and end-users to co-create solutions to identified and pressing clinical challenges through an open innovation platform. In 48 hours, teams will move from ideas to prototypes with early business models that have the potential to transform RMNCH outcomes in India and around the world.

The event will take place at GE’s John F. Welch Technology Centre in Bengaluru, the company’s largest innovation center. GE Healthcare is at work for a healthier India and is focusing on some of the toughest healthcare challenges faced by India today – lowering maternal and infant mortality rates, enabling early detection of cancer for early treatment and addressing heart diseases.

“We are pleased to partner with CAMTech once again to help spur the innovation of accessible, affordable healthcare solutions for a healthier world. As the leading innovator of healthcare technologies and solutions, we would like to offer our expertise, advanced laboratories and industrial design facilities to these budding innovators for forging a culture of open innovation and co-creation of healthcare technologies”, said Milan Rao, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia.

The Jugaad-a-thon will be directly preceded by a Clinical Summit, which will convene clinicians, healthcare workers, government public health experts and patients from across India to identify the most pressing RMNCH needs and best practices in delivering care. The Summit will also include a Technology Showcase for early-stage and newly marketed medical technologies that aim to improve quality and access for RMNCH in India. 

This year’s event includes monetary prizes of Rs. 9 lacs for top innovations that focus on specific RMNCH challenges, including a USAID-sponsored award of Rs. 1.5 lacs for the team that best addresses its challenge in the field of Family Planning and Reproductive Health. Other awards include those sponsored by CAMTech/USAID, GE Healthcare, Merck for Mothers and a special post-Jugaad-a-thon award from the Federation of Indian 

Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Terumo India for the top two innovations that make the most progress 30 days after the event.  Teams will be judged by a panel of experts from public health, engineering and business, reflecting CAMTech’s cross-sector approach to innovation.

“In a world that is witnessing technological advancement take place at breakneck speed, the Jugaad-a-thon creates a space for researchers and practitioners to channel this growth - through exciting ideas and innovations - towards social good,” said Neha Kumar, a professor of international development and human-computer interaction at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Kumar was a member of last year’s winning team, “Baby Steps”, which created an integrated mobile application for early diagnosis of developmental delays in children across India.  She’ll return this year not only as a participant, but also as a budding entrepreneur.

Since 2012, CAMTech has brought together over 1,500 innovators from more than 300 clinical, academic and commercial organizations to participate in medtech hack-a-thons, award programs and entrepreneurial-building initiatives. These efforts have helped spawn nearly 350 new technologies addressing intractable problems such as newborn asphyxia, post-partum hemorrhage and cervical cancer. CAMTech’s initiatives, including its newly launched Online Innovation Platform, help connect and support a global community of innovators working to improve health in developing and emerging markets.