An app that aids patients with facial paralysis won the $10,000 prize at Lebanon’s BDL Accelerate conference health hackathon on November 4.

The app helps people with strokes by using gamifying elements which, instead of showing their faces on the app, which can be distressing, shows cartoons or others adaptations of their selfie images.

The health hackathon began on November 2 and lasted for 48 hours. Teams were formed on the spot and more than 20 mentors, including 10 doctors, were on hand to advise the teams around technical, financial and hardware aspects. 

Sleiman and his team were among 22 groups participating in the healthtech hackathon, organized by Lebanon’s central bank and in partnership with Garage48, a Estonian event series and startup hub, and Hacking Surgery, a London-based healthcare hackathon.

“We have been in many countries, but what I felt here [in Lebanon] is that the startups were really good on the technical side, and we had some good executions,” said Jüri Kaljundi, cofounder fo Garage48.

Kaljundi was among the six judges at the competition. Other judges included serial entrepreneur Ragnar Sass, surgeon John Nehme, investor Mathew Farkash, ‎founder of Testlio, Kristel Kruustük, engineer Alvar Lumberg, and machine learning expert Loubna Bouarfa.

The prototypes submitted included impressive hardware designs such as a device that monitors blood pressure for patients with vascular bypass, a surgical procedure that redirects blood flow to avoid amputation.

Other designs include a pediatric advice platform for parents, a medical emergency platform that matches patients with hospitals willing to accommodate them, a site that matches nurses with patients in need of care, and - yes you are reading it correctly - a faeces monitoring platform that diagnoses patients suffering from digestive problems according to the shape and texture of their faeces.

Feature image via Pexels.com