Student innovators triumph at health systems hackathon

The winner of the 2026 health systems hackathon is an artificial intelligence-powered (AI) chronic disease adherence platform, designed to improve how patients manage long-term conditions. These conditions include diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, HIV, and tuberculosis (TB).

The University of Cape Town (UCT) hosted this year’s sessions on 10 and 11 April under the theme, “Building High-Value Health Systems: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence”. This was a collaboration between the Faculty of Health Sciences’ (FHS) Health Systems Innovation Hub and the Harvard Health Systems Innovation Lab (HSIL). Participants hailed from innovation hubs across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas to develop and pitch digital health solutions.

The core problem Ismaeel Noor Mahomed, Kevaal Govender, Timilehin Aderibigbe and Ashraf Moosa aim to address is that many patients begin treatment but once they’ve left the consultation room, they often receive little to no ongoing support. This can lead to missed doses, poor understanding of their medication, preventable complications, and increased healthcare costs.

The solution is a patient-facing mobile app that helps individuals manage all their chronic conditions and medications in one place. The app provides medication reminders, adherence tracking, progress visualisation, educational content, streaks, nudges, and a proof-of-dose feature to encourage consistent treatment-taking behaviour. They hope their app, Siyaphila, can bridge the gap.

“Picking up diagnostics early is really a worthwhile experience.”

What makes the idea different is the AI and analytics layer behind it. As patients use the app, the platform captures structured adherence data over time. This data can then be used to identify early warning signs of non-adherence, flag patients at risk of complications, and support more personalised, preventive care. In the long term, the goal is to use this data to train predictive models that help clinicians, funders, and medical aids intervene earlier – before complications and unnecessary costs escalate.

Before students were put through their paces, speakers shared several key pointers. Associate Professor Tracey Naledi, the deputy dean for social accountability and health systems at the FHS, was one such speaker. “Social accountability sits at the heart of what this is all about. The health system must be answerable to the needs of the people it serves, and we must be able to verify that those needs have been met,” she said.

“There’s a lot that AI can do, and a lot it cannot; however, I hope it can help shift the conditions that perpetuate ill health and make it easier for us to design health systems that are centred around health equity.”

Design thinking

Dr Max Rath, chief medical officer at AI Diagnostics, told the audience that there is a healthcare access problem. “Four billion people have no access to basic health care. As a result, eight million people die annually, and half of these deaths are avoidable. To avoid them, we need 10 million healthcare workers,” Dr Rath said. His company then set out to create an AI-enabled digital stethoscope as a potential solution.

The digital stethoscope, which adds 20 million people to screening services, is used to record the patient’s breaths in six different positions. The AI model quickly analyses the sound of the patient’s lungs and calculates the TB screening results. The result is to rule out TB or send the patient for further testing.

“Picking up diagnostics early is really a worthwhile experience.”

Richard Perez, the director of the Hasso Plattner School of Design Thinking Afrika (d-school Afrika), gave a design thinking presentation, and ended off with a 12-point information pack. It begins by navigating uncertainty, there is framing and reframing, followed by purposeful reflection. Students were asked to be mindful of their process, live the behaviour and be driven to make a difference. Perez encouraged them not to be bias to action; to be human-centred, seek diversity, make it tangible, play with possibilities and lead with curiosity.

Both the winning and runner up team are advancing to the bootcamp phase one led by Harvard HSIL.