COVID-19 Ideathon 2021
COVID-19 Ideathon 2021
COVID-19 Ideathon 2021
Report
Event Summary:
Over the course of one month (from February to March 2021), we held an online Ideathon with 11 dedicated participants who challenged themselves with some of the world’s most pressing issues concerning the ongoing pandemic.
Outcomes:
Interviews with 17 TMDU healthcare professionals (including President Yujiro Tanaka and Vice President Atsushi Okawa, Professors, Clinicians, and Nurse Professionals)
Presentations with extensive research and iteration from each group/theme
Awards and project assessments from Professor Kazuki Takada and Ms. Yuko Kanazawa (Allm Inc.)
Next steps :
Global Health Ideathon (4 continents, Summer 2021)
Healthcare Hackathon (Fall 2021)
Background:
It has been almost a year since April 2020 when Tokyo Medical and Dental University’s (TMDU) Medical Hospital started accepting patients with COVID-19. During the past year, whenever the university’s COVID-19 response was featured on national news, TV, or on the internet, we felt proud to be affiliated with a university combatting the pandemic at the frontline. At the same time for the past year, most of our classes have been online, and we have barely been able to go to the university, which has often left us wondering what we are doing with our precious time as a student. Much of our cohorts became frustrated with our status as medical students incapable of contributing on the ground. We began to wonder, “is there anything that we students can do during these unprecedented times?” -- this was the start of our “COVID-19 Ideathon 2021.”
Overview:
Students were divided into teams to (1) research and understand the current situation around COVID-19, (2) identify issues and problems, and (3) seek solutions to respond to these issues. This online event was held throughout the course of a month at the end of the 2020 academic year, and served as a way to wrap up the challenging academic year while reflecting over the past year we had lived with COVID-19.
Participants
The members of each team and the topic of their research were as follows (“M” refers to those who belong to the Faculty of Medicine, and the number following represents the student’s year);
Hospital management during the COVID-19 Pandemic
M5 Ken Matsushita, M1 Momoka Akiyama, M1 Ayuri Sano
Diagnosis of COVID-19
M1 Machi Eguchi, M1 Nodoka Shinoda
Treatment of COVID-19
M1 Kohtaro Shimada, M1 Tomoki Matsushita (+ one undisclosed member)
Prevention of COVID-19
M2 Riho Kutsumizu, M1 Miho Inoue, M1 Yuma Mizuno
Timeline
The Ideathon was held over the course of one month, with two main days for orientation and the final presentations:
Ideathon Day 1: Saturday, February 27, 10:00-11:00
- Overview and theme setting
Ideathon Day 2: Saturday, March 27, 9:00-12:00
- Presentations and feedback from special guests
“One Month Ideathon” Process
After a short introduction to the event on Day 1, each team spent a month researching, discussing, designing, and preparing for their Day 2 presentations. Specifically, the teams conducted research and interviewed professors/staff at TMDU while digging deeper into the issues and distal causes as they sought solutions.
Interview Series with Healthcare Professionals:
Throughout the event, we conducted Zoom interviews with 17 TMDU professors/staff to learn more about the situation on the ground during the pandemic. Our interviewees shared detailed examples concerning the day-to-day challenges on the ground as well as how they all worked collaboratively to tackle the pandemic together. In addition to the current countermeasures and the remaining challenges on the ground, we gained tremendous insight allowing us to effectively synthesize our learnings from research and be well-prepared for our Day 2 presentations. Our interviewees were also kind enough to sympathize that our time as students may be difficult, but that our current learnings inside and outside school are valuable teachings for when we become medical professionals, and encouraged us to make the best of the situation as we are since "tough times bring opportunity." They also mentioned that "students should be more proud of TMDU," as the university still has zero nosocomial (in-hospital) COVID-19 infections, and has been a leader for COVID-19 countermeasures in Japan. Finally, the interviewees shared that it is important to recognize that it is not only medical professionals, but also society as a whole that is suffering from and working hard to overcome the pandemic, and this we must work together in solidarity.
Assessment of Presentations
The following two special guests were invited as judges to give feedback on the presentations and select the Grand Prize winner on Day 2.
Dr. Kazuki Takada
- Professor, Institute of Global Affairs, Tokyo Medical and Dental University
Ms. Yuko Kanazawa
- General Manager, “Team Business Promotion OfficePlatform” Department, Allm Inc.
After careful consideration and assessment, the Grand Prize was presented to the "Diagnosis of COVID-19" team. The following are summaries of each team's presentation:
The "Hospital Management during the COVID-19 Pandemic" team proposed the full-scale implementation of telemedicine services and the provision of sufficient information by hospitals as a solution to decrease the number of patients who come to the hospital during the pandemic.
The "Diagnosis of COVID-19" team proposed shortening the testing time and improving the testing sensitivity to realize a better testing system to precisely track the situation. They also shared an impressive idea of using drones to reduce the time required for specimen transportation.
The “Treatment of COVID-19” team focused on Japan's so-called "drug lag" and proposed that the approval process should be accelerated as an exception during emergencies such as the current pandemic.
The "Prevention of COVID-19" team proposed an update to the current national contact-tracing application "COCOA" to enable the sharing of updated information/evidence in an easy-to-understand manner to tackle vaccine hesitancy.
Each presentation was followed by a series of questions and comments from the judges as well as fellow students, and the judges also provided new perspectives and further insights.
Next Steps: Global Health Ideathon
Our first Ideathon event was held only for students of Tokyo Medical and Dental University focusing on domestic solutions within Japan, but for our next event (Summer 2021), we will host a joint ideathon with participants from with youths across four continents (Asia, America, Africa, and Europe) to learn and seek potential solutions in the context of global health. For the fall, we then plan to host a hackathon in the fall, where we will finally delve into creating prototypes of our solutions.
Acknowledgements
First and foremost we would like to express our sincerest gratitude to President Yujiro Tanaka and Vice President Atsushi Okawa. Thank you very much for taking so much of your time to help us early on from the planning stage of this ideathon and for introducing each of the interviewed healthcare professionals. We truly appreciate your guidance and for granting us this opportunity with such grace under stressful circumstances.
Dr. Takada and Ms. Kanazawa, Thank you very much for taking the time out of your busy schedules to be a judge for our students, and for your constructive and informative feedback. We look forward to continued engagement and collaboration for ensuring our projects’ realizations.
We also would like to mention our appreciation for the following TMDU professors/staff who kindly took the time for this event:
Ms. Asaka, Mr. Okayasu, Dr. Kawahara, Ms. Komatsu, Dr. Sakai, Dr. Sasano, Dr. Hidekazu Takahashi, Dr. Hidehiko Takahashi, Dr. Takeuchi, Dr. Fujita, Mr. Matsubara, Dr. Miyasaka, Dr. Yamaoka, Dr. Yamada
Finally, thank you again to all those who participated in this event as well as those who contributed to this event and we look forward to seeing everyone again next time!
Ideathon Steering Team: Takaki Kobayashi
Supported by: Euma Ishii, Shion Seino