More than 300 participants, industry mentors, organizers and volunteers came together at the second CAMTech INDIA Jugaad-a-thon to co-create and develop affordable health technologies that address reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health (RMNCH) in India. Organized in partnership with Lattice Innovations and hosted by GE Healthcare India at the John F Welch Technology Center in Bengaluru, the Consortium for Affordable Medical Technologies (CAMTech) at Mass General Hospital's Center for Global health called on innovators from across India, Africa and the US. Through this USAID-sponsored initiative, a diverse group of clinical, engineering and business participants convened around one main goal, improving the lives of women and children in India.

"We believe that co-creation is the future of health care innovation, where clinicians sit side-by-side with engineers, entrepreneurs and industry to develop disruptive and impactful solutions. This year's Jugaad-a-thon brought that diversity of stakeholders in India together to show that you can accelerate the whole process of innovation," said Ms Elizabeth Bailey, CAMTech's Director.

The Jugaad-a-thon (derived from the Hindi word "jugaad" meaning an innovative fix or work-around), invites some of the world's brightest minds to collaborate over a 48-hour period and develop solutions to identified clinical challenges through an open innovation platform. Prior to the Jugaad-a-thon, CAMTech INDIA held a Clinical Summit with clinicians, healthcare workers, government public health experts and patients from around the world to identify and discuss pressing maternal and child health challenges, as well as best practices in delivering care. The Summit also included a Technology Showcase for early-stage and newly-marketed medical technologies that aim to improve quality and access for RMNCH in India.

From low-cost female contraceptives to novel ways to deliver oxygen to remote health centers to gamification of family planning education, this year's event saw 65 innovations developed, a record number from CAMTech's hack-a-thons.

"In this year's Jugaad-a-thon, we gave the participants three challenges that represented three of the most pressing needs in the area of maternal and infant care. The record number of quality ideas generated at Jugaad-a-thon clearly validates our belief that the way forward for innovating meaningful and impactful healthcare solutions is by co-creating these solutions with all stake holders of the healthcare eco-system," said Mr Milan Rao, president and CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia.

Participants worked around the clock to pitch healthcare problems, form teams, prototype solutions, and develop business models before presenting their ideas to a panel of judges from public health, engineering and business, reflecting CAMTech's cross-sector approach to innovation.

This year's event awarded monetary prizes to winning teams in several categories, including:

USAID Grand Challenge Award: Family Planning and Reproductive Health: Team Trust+ won this prize for developing of a mobile platform for adolescents and adults that encourages open and effective communication about safe sex and family planning.

CAMTech-USAID Awards: CAMTech and USAID awarded prizes to the top three teams across all categories: Team Slow Forward, an effective video consultation for rural areas with low bandwidth took first place; Team Peekaboo, an interactive gaming application that aids in identifying vision impairment for children, won second place; and Team Shakthi Ki Yukthi, a low-cost female contraceptive tool, took the third prize.

GE Healthcare India Awards: GE sponsored three challenges and awarded prizes to the following teams: Nitrobooster, which developed a cost-effective and steady supply of nitrous oxide for surgeries; O2-Matic, a low-cost method for oxygen production to address unpredictable availability of medical gases in limited resource settings; and Aawaazz, an affordable device that screens for hearing impairment in infants in under-served communities.

MSD for Mothers (known as Merck in the US and Canada) Awards: These awards were given to MOM (Maternity over Mortality), which aims to reduce the culture time involved in the diagnosis of maternal sepsis, and Team Slow Forward.

In addition to this year's winners, Jugaad-a-thon participants will have the opportunity to win a special post-Jugaad-a-thon award from FICCI and Terumo India for the top two innovations that make the most progress 30 days after the event.