SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre Announces Hackathon Winners Tackling Maternal and Child Nutrition Challenges

Singapore, 22 September 2026 – Three teams from Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Thailand clinched prizes at the second edition of the Asia-Pacific Global Health Innovation Hackathon, held in Singapore from 18 to 19 September 2026. Jointly co-hosted by two SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) institutes, the Academic Medicine Innovation Institute (AMII) and the Global Health Institute (SDGHI), alongside SingHealth's International Collaboration Office (ICO), this year’s edition brought together 13 teams from across Asia to develop transformative and scalable solutions to one of the region's most pressing public health challenges: maternal and child nutrition.  

The two-day hackathon saw participants receive expert mentorship from clinicians and faculty from the AMC and regional partner organisations. It culminated in a final pitch, where each team of three to four presented their innovation idea to a panel of judges from the World Health Organization, Mahidol University (Thailand), KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH), and SDGHI.

Team Thrive1000 – Hailing from Bangladesh, the team's idea is to develop a digital health platform to support pregnant women in low- and middle-income countries.

The platform will connect expectant mothers directly with healthcare professionals for prenatal nutrition support. Available in both English and Bangla, Thrive1000 will offer in-app nutrition screening, support a chatbot and help expecting mothers take supplements correctly. The app will also enable women to record and monitor their baby's growth during pregnancy, alongside antenatal appointment reminders and follow-ups. Together, these features will support women throughout their pregnancy journey.

Team FeedWise – As one of the two participating teams from Indonesia, this team presented a digital decision-support tool to help Indonesian community health volunteers (kaders) provide personalised infant and young child feeding counselling during community health sessions, or posyandu. Kaders often use paper-based records with limited time, training, and decision-support resources. The companion app will help kaders to identify feeding problems early, so they can offer tailored advice and follow-up, or referral to primary healthcare centres.

Team MaMaMate – Hailing from Thailand, this team is developing MamaMate, an AI-powered nutrition companion for village health volunteers (VHVs), or Or Sor Mor that work to support mothers of children aged 0–24 months in rural Thailand. MamaMate will help VHVs to personalise feeding guidance based on a child's age, weight, growth and allergies, suggest safe ingredient substitutions, and support breastfeeding mothers – all aligned with WHO standards. It will be connected to the nearest community clinic for escalation if needed.

The three winning teams have earned a place in the Asia-Pacific Global Health Innovation Hackathon Incubation Programme, where they will further develop their ideas into fundable, real-world solutions. Run jointly by SDGHI and SingHealth's ICO and delivered largely online, the programme will equip the teams with resources to build and pilot their ideas within their own communities, complemented by tailored mentorship from dedicated experts in maternal and child health, implementation science, innovation, and partnership-building.

While opening the Hackathon, Prof Lim Soon Thye, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer (Research, Education & Innovation), SingHealth, shared, "At SingHealth, we have a longstanding dedication to innovation and improving the health of mothers and children, and this hackathon embodies both commitments. Innovation in maternal and child nutrition need not be complex to be powerful; it simply must be useful, trusted and workable in the real settings where mothers, children, families and their healthcare teams need it most. That is the kind of innovation this hackathon set out to inspire, and the ideas the teams brought forward are a testament to what is possible."

Dr Daniel Mahadzir, Global Health Innovation Lead at the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute added, “Our winning teams brought to life the three objectives we set out to advance: service delivery transformation, use of digital tools and remote monitoring to bridge hospital and home; health equity, so the postal code you're born in never determines your life expectancy; and sustainable resource-efficient solutions that don't just work, but last. We couldn't be prouder, and we're already shaping our third hackathon theme. Stay tuned.”

About the Asia-Pacific Global Health Innovation Hackathon series

This is the second Asia-Pacific Global Health Innovation Hackathon, made once more possible by the generous support of The Moh Family Foundation. What sets this hackathon apart is the direct bridge it builds between clinic and code. Participants gain hands-on access to SDGHI's global health expertise, working shoulder-to-shoulder with clinical frontliners to solve real, validated problems. Each hackathon edition focuses on a specific pressing health challenge. Last year's addressed climate and health, and this year's addresses maternal and child nutrition.

About this year's theme: maternal and child nutrition

Asia remains at the epicentre of the global maternal and child nutrition crisis. Despite a modest decline in undernutrition - from 7.0% in 2023 to 6.4% in 2024 - the region still accounts for nearly 40% of the world's hungry population¹. Across Asia and South Asia nearly one in three women aged 15-49 suffer from anaemia, while acute malnutrition affects 8.9% of children - well above global averages². Yet a focus on undernutrition tells only part of the story. Over 35 million children under five in the region are overweight - with Asia carrying nearly half the global burden - reflecting a deepening 'double burden' where undernutrition and rising obesity exist side by side³. Compounded by climate-related food insecurity and volatile external funding, these converging pressures demand integrated solutions that address the full spectrum of malnutrition.

[1] FAO, IFAD, WHO and WFP. 2025. Asia and the Pacific Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2025 – Accelerating actions for agrifood systems transformation for food security and better nutrition. Asia and the Pacific – Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition, 2025. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd7666en

[2] Rahut D. B., A. Singh, and S. Tetsushi. 2024. Continuum of Maternal and Newborn Health Care: Empirical Evidence from 10 Developing Countries in South and Southeast Asia. Journal of Population Research, forthcoming.

[3] Raina, N., R. Khanna, S. Gupta, C. A. Jayathilaka, R. Mehta, and S. Behera. 2023. Progress in Achieving SDG Targets for Mortality Reduction Among Mothers, Newborns, and Children in the WHO South-East Asia Region. The Lancet Regional Health-Southeast Asia.

About SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre

The SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre (AMC) draws on the collective strengths of SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School to provide our patients and community with the best outcomes and experience.

By leveraging the synergies in clinical care, research and education created through our Academic Clinical Programmes, Disease Centres and Joint Institutes, the SingHealth Duke-NUS AMC fosters the exchange of scientific knowledge and clinical perspectives to accelerate innovation and new discoveries, advance the practice of medicine as well as nurture the next generation of healthcare professionals.

SingHealth delivers comprehensive, multi-disciplinary and integrated care across a network of acute hospitals, national specialty centres, polyclinics and community hospitals. Offering over 40 clinical specialties, SingHealth is Singapore’s largest public healthcare cluster.

Duke-NUS, Singapore’s flagship graduate-entry medical school, nurtures ‘Clinician Plus’ graduates to become leaders in the global healthcare and biomedical ecosystem, while scientists from its five Signature Research Programmes and 10 Centres transform medicine and improve lives in Asia and beyond.

For more information, please visit: www.singhealthdukenus.com.sg  

About the SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute

Advancing health, wellbeing, and equity in Asia and beyond

The SingHealth Duke-NUS Global Health Institute (SDGHI) is an enabling platform for global health activities across the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre. Harnessing the strengths and expertise of SingHealth and Duke-NUS Medical School, the institute aims to address current and emerging health challenges across Asia and beyond. Working in collaboration with partners globally, we seek to tackle prevalent health challenges, strengthen health systems, and better insulate countries from pandemics and disease threats.

For more information, please visit: www.duke-nus.edu.sg/sdghi