Ulla Hellstrand Tang, a doctoral researcher at the Department of Orthopaedics at the Sahlgrenska Academy, was part of the team that scooped up the prize in the Apply Health contest, which was recently decided at the Swedish Museum of Photography in Stockholm. The prize is SEK 50,000 plus a trip to Google’s headquarters in Dublin.
Ulla Hellstrand Tang was part of the “Myfoot Diabetes” team, which during the competition developed a mobile app for people with diabetes that can be used to easily evaluate, obtain information, and receive advice on how diabetics can best take care of their feet. The jury’s citation reads: “The winner of APPlicera Hälsa has, via its concept and application, showed how mobile technology can be integrated into health care in order to create patient participation and improve health care for patients. Their solution shows great creativity, a high level of innovation, and technical expertise.”
The competition was organized in the form of a “health hackathon” where teams of students, economists, entrepreneurs, nurses, doctors, computer programmers, illustrators and orthopedic engineers worked side by side for 24 hours and sharpened their ideas and programmed their apps. Some participants slept only a few hours during the competition. This 24-hour event was organized by the Forum för Välfärd/Forum for Wellbeing and went by the name APPlicera Hälsa.
After 24 hours of programming, the twelve finalists unveiled their apps and the new and amazing ideas to a jury consisting of prominent people in the business community and medical field, and entrepreneurs.
The “MyFoot Diabetes” team consisted of John Alnemo, certified orthotist/prosthetist at Sahlgrenska University Hospital; Pontus and Christoffer Thomeé, CT data; Pontus Andersson, Pontus Artproduction; as well as Ulla Hellstrand Tang, certified orthotist/prosthetist active at Sahlgrenska University Hospital and doctoral student at the Sahlgrenska Academy. The winning team that created the best app also won a trip to the Google headquarters in Dublin and mentoring through the Forum för Välfärd’s network.
