Quattropole Health Hackathon – 4 cities, 7 challenges, 8 solutions

Cross-border cooperation plays a vital role for the health and well-being of the people in the Greater Region – the border triangle between France, Germany and Luxembourg. Especially in the healthcare sector, the situation with regard to skilled labour remains tense. That’s why the Greater Region cities identified a total number of seven key challenges that were found to have a negative impact on work and work places in the healthcare sector, e.g.:

• Overcoming linguistic & cultural barriers in daily hospital life (Saarbrücken): How can language barriers be overcome in a smart way when admitting patients or explaining treatments?

• Quality of life in the workplace, innovation & environmental friendliness (Metz): The journey to work is an important part of the working day: commuting accidents, for example, account for a large proportion of road accidents. How can we improve the journey to work for nursing staff and reduce negative impacts (fatigue, stress, fuel costs, environmental concerns). 

• Support for international collaboration in nursing care (Trier): Once nursing staff have been recruited from abroad, integrating them into everyday nursing work is often a challenge with professional & linguistic differences leading to communication problems. How can we overcome these barriers?

• Supporting patient movement (Metz): For many it is difficult to find their way around hospital facilities during their visit (consultations, examinations etc.). The challenge is to offer a simple, ergonomic and accessible tool or application for all patients that allows them to find their way around the hospital and to improve traffic flows.

• Well-being, public space & health at the workplace (Luxembourg): What are innovative and creative solutions that address the interplay between green spaces, workplace health and well-being.

In support of the health-care related challenges faced by the cities of the Greater Region (Metz, Luxembourg, Saarbrücken, Trier), EDIH Saarland organized the very first Quattropole Health Hackathon on 1st and 2nd December 2023. A hackathon is an event where people engage in rapid and collaborative engineering over a relatively short period of time (24 to 48 hours). The rationale for organizing this event is its incredible cost-effectiveness with regard to solution development.

Moreover, the Quattropole Hackathon was very interdisciplinary, seeking dialogue with participants from medicine, business, science, and public administration in order to provide the best health solutions. A unique aspect was also that it took place simultaneously in four locations: Saarbrücken & Trier (Germany), Luxembourg (Luxembourg), Metz (France), thus supporting skills development and networking across the regions. Participating hackers travelled to one of the four cities depending on the chosen challenge(s). For certain agenda items, live broadcasts between the cities ensured the seamless exchange between the cities and teams during the event. In order to boost participation in this day-and-night event, catering and accommodation were provided.

The event was kicked-off on 1 December at 9:15 am CET with a simultaneous reception, followed by welcome addresses in each city and a live broadcast of the keynote speakers: Dr. Christoph Endres, Expert for Cybersecurity and organizer of the Saar Hackathon and Prof. Bruce Maggs, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Duke University (USA) and Director of Engineering at EMARALD Innovation, Cambridge (USA).

Following the presentation of the challenges, the working groups were built, and in the late morning, the hacking started – lasting until almost midnight. The next day, the hacking resumed at 7:30 am and continued until 3 pm, followed by the final pitches. The award ceremony took place cross-border and via livestream in all four cities.

During this unprecedented event, more than 120 hackers – both individual participants and teams – developed several creative digital solutions (e.g. in the form of an app or web application) based on predefined questions ("challenges"). In this context, the term "health" was interpreted in a broad sense, encompassing a variety of aspects ranging from well-being, mental health or physical health up to sports.

The jury was composed of an interdisciplinary team of experts and included both representatives from the health sector (e.g. Dr. Christian Braun, Managing Director and Medical Director of Saarbrücken Clinical Centre) and technology (e.g. Prof. Dr. Marco Speicher, Head of the Department of Computer Science at the German University for Prevention and Health Management). Moreover, the Quattropole Jury also included the mayors of each of the four participating cities with lord mayor Uwe Conradt (Saarbrücken) being the patron of the event. Selection criteria included the definition, structure and thematic fit of the project, its innovation character, its feasibility, its design and implementation, the presentation of the project as part of the pitch session and last but not least, its cross-border dimension. Two mentors were available at each site to provide practical advice to the local teams. 

At East Side Fab, a modern innovation laboratory in Saarbrücken, three developer teams addressed the question of how linguistic and cultural hurdles can be overcome in everyday hospital life. Cybersecurity expert Christoph Endres, who explained the concept of the Quattropole Health Hackathon to all participants, admits that the organisers “are breaking new ground here”. He expected the Quattropole's first Health Hackathon to produce useful results that can be used in practice, in addition to an improved networking between all players. "I hope that the Greater Region will increase its awareness on what a powerful tool a hackathon can be." In Saarbrücken, the "Pirate MetalDrinking Crew" - five employees of the Saarbrücken-based Mediserv Bank - won the first prize for two novel approaches for everyday clinical practice. "Our aim is to quickly find a solution that costs almost nothing and to link it to existing resources in a meaningful way," said risk controller Tim Wolsdorfer. Their idea was that a patient in the emergency department could simply select his/her native language on a terminal device and complete a digitalised medical history form. "For those who can't read or write, we present the form in pictograms," explained Wolsdorfer. The team proposed a solution to avoid communication problems during doctor-patient consultations: clinic staff can act as language mentors, i.e. the respective language skills are linked to the time recording card. Regarding the Quattropole Prize, the "Welcome Hero" team led by computer scientist Thomas Darimont won the award for the best cross-border solution. Their idea: an AI-supported hospital assistance system for visitors, patients and staff, which helps users to find e.g. the maternity clinic or the cafeteria menu in their native language.

As regards investments, the Quattropole cities provided 25.000 € to cover expenses for media, technology, and marketing. Based on GA Ref. Ares(2022)7484536, EDIH Saarland contributed services amounting to 2.500 €. Last but not least, more than 20.000 € prize money were provided by the companies posing the challenges – including an overall Quattropole prize. The best indicator for the success of this event is that for each challenge, a winner could be selected by the jury among all submissions. This means, the Quattropole cities indeed found workable solutions to each of their challgenges - solutions that would normally cost around 100.000 € (5 developers*150€ hourly rate = 750€ per team/per hour => 2 days à 8 hours each=12.000€ per solution). The complete list of the eight winners of the first Quattropole Health Hackathon is available online.