City announces HealthHack finalists
March 19, 2018

On March 16, 2018, five finalists were announced for the City of Edmonton’s HealthHack, a competition to encourage smart city solutions to improve the health of Edmontonians. 

“It was difficult for the judges to choose just five finalists as we received almost 40 creative and interesting ideas,” says Soumya Ghosh, Director of Digital Enablement at the City of Edmonton. “We are excited to see how these proposals will develop into prototypes designed to focus on the health of Edmontonians.”

The finalists are:
  • Redliner Goes to Town - Sensors that will enable wheelchair users and their families to route-plan excursions and ensure they are physically able to navigate them.
  • Bravely Bringing Buddy Benches Beyond: Brainy Boys Broach Big Idea Based on Urban Betterment - Near-field communication (NFC) tags placed at public locations, such as libraries and buddy benches, that can be tapped or scanned, allowing the user to see a virtual message board of people who have been there in the past. 
  • Trailblazing Twitter: Urban Design for Better Mental Health - An interactive web application that will collect geo-coded Twitter data, analyze the text and link it with socio-economic data. The insight will help planners and policy makers achieve mental health outcomes by improving urban design.
  • Blockchain-based Ecosystem for Informed Cannabis Consumption and Open Research - Blockchain technology used to shape a new national ecosystem surrounding healthy cannabis consumption and regulation, while simultaneously generating open and transparent data that can be used to inform policy.
  • Becoming Active? Supporting the Non-Athlete in All of Us - A solution designed to specifically target the less active 85% of the population by providing solid evidence-based strategies to support the pursuit of a healthier active lifestyle.

“We’re offering $5,000, $2,500 and $1,000 to the top three, but the real prize of HealthHack goes to Edmontonians,” says Ghosh. “Even if we don’t end up using these ideas for our Smart Cities Challenge proposal, we will still have them for possible implementation down the road.” 

HealthHack proposals may be used for the Smart Cities Challenge, which encourages communities and their most creative minds to adopt new and innovative approaches to city-building. The City of Edmonton has chosen the theme of “Healthy City.”

The finalists have until April 16, 2018, to work on their prototypes. Winners will be announced on April 20, 2018.
For more information:

Media contact:  
Communications Advisor
Open City and Technology
780-508-9169 
780-886-7552