Congratulations to BME undergrad student Marion Hagstrom and a team of seven students for winning the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH) Global Prize at the 2022 Healthcare Hackathon. Health Hackathon 2022 is an innovation competition where talented and enthusiastic students gather to provide practical solutions for better healthcare. The theme for this year’s event was Healthcare Access.
The ultimate purpose of the Health Hackathon is to design and develop unique, marketable solutions that address pressing healthcare challenges. During the three-day event, teams made up of five to eight participants presented perplexing healthcare problems, then strategize to develop novel solutions. Participants include undergraduate and graduate students, along with faculty and community members.
Hagstrom’s team, made up of students from all over the world, worked the weekend of January 28-30 to propose an app called “Speak Easy” to help children with cleft palates access speech therapy from home. Speak Easy’s aim is to revolutionize speech therapy for children. The award was sponsored by the Yale School of Public Health and Yale Institute for Global Health Sustainable Health Initiative.
Hagstrom is the vice president of Generational Relief in Prosthetics (GRiP), an organization made up of University of Florida students that strives to make a difference in the lives of others and conducts research in the Nino Research Group.