Ireland’s First Student-Led HealthTech & MedTech Innovation Hackathon

Advance Health is a national, student-led hackathon uniting Ireland’s brightest minds across medicine, engineering, computer science, business, and design to tackle real-world healthcare challenges.

Modern healthcare faces urgent and complex issues: ageing populations, inefficiencies in screening systems, antimicrobial resistance, inequitable access, and gaps in women’s health. These challenges cannot be solved in silos. They require cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Advance Health was created to bridge medicine and innovation — empowering students to design ethical, scalable, and impactful solutions aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Over three intensive days, participants move from problem discovery to prototype development, guided by clinicians, researchers, engineers, and industry mentors.

Real healthcare innovation happens when clinicians and technologists build together. We actively encourage diverse teams combining medical insight and technical execution.

Participants can compete in:

• Medical Devices

• AI Solutions in Healthcare

• Women’s Health

• Healthcare Screening & Optimisation

• Global Health

• Open Track

Each track addresses urgent global healthcare needs.

Mentors from academia, hospitals, startups, and industry partners provide real-world feedback throughout the weekend.

Projects are encouraged to align with SDGs, ensuring solutions are responsible, inclusive, and globally relevant.

Teams will pitch their solutions at Demo Day to a panel of judges from healthcare, academia, and industry.

• Opening keynote

• Track briefings

• Team matching session

• Problem framing workshops

Day 2 – Build & Validate

• Prototyping sessions

• Mentor check-ins

• Clinical & technical office hours

• Pitch workshop

• Final presentations

• Judging & awards ceremony

Advance Health is more than a competition — it is a launchpad for the next generation of healthcare innovators.

• Innovation & Relevance
  Evaluates how clearly the team defines a meaningful healthcare problem and how original, impactful, and relevant their solution is. Judges assess creativity, differentiation, and alignment with real-world clinical or system needs.
• Feasibility
  Assesses the practicality and realism of the solution. Judges consider technical viability, prototype quality, understanding of healthcare constraints, and whether the idea could realistically be implemented beyond the hackathon.
• Presentation & Team Diversity
  Measures clarity, structure, and persuasiveness of the pitch, as well as the team’s collaboration. Judges look for strong communication, confident delivery, and meaningful integration of diverse disciplines and perspectives.