About

One question drove this hackathon: how do we help people see sooner, and see better?

Eye disease is often silent until it is advanced. Screening capacity is finite, clinics are far from many patients, and the tools that could close that gap are frequently built without clinicians in the room. BeyondVision exists to change that starting condition.

Over the course of the programme, teams of two to six built working concepts in ophthalmology and eye care, from earlier detection and triage to surgical planning, rehabilitation, and access for patients far from a specialist centre. Teams were not asked to write proposals. They built something that could be demonstrated.

The hackathon in brief

More than 200 people registered and 46 teams submitted applications. A mixed panel of clinicians and technologists completed 155 evaluations, and five teams reached the finals. Meet the winning teams on the Winners page and relive the event in the photo gallery.

Who took part

Ophthalmologists, residents, and allied eye-care professionals who see the problem daily. Engineers, data scientists, and developers who can build. Designers who can make a clinical tool usable under pressure. Students and researchers with a hypothesis worth testing. The strongest teams combined several of these.

How teams were supported

Clinical mentors from MNGHA were available throughout, so assumptions could be tested against real practice rather than guessed at. Submissions were assessed by a mixed panel of clinicians and technologists against a published rubric, and reviews were conducted blind so the work was judged on its merits.

Partners

BeyondVision was delivered by the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs in collaboration with King Abdullah International Medical Research Center (KAIMRC) and King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS).