MScPT student Nidhi Bhagat brings physiotherapy skills to Hack the Hospital
Pediatric hospitals care for children with many different illnesses and situations, but they all have one need in common: to be as comfortable as possible, especially in the place where they (and their families) spend most of their time; their room.
Recently, first-year MScPT student Nidhi Bhagat participated in Hack the Hospital, a global hackathon event hosted by SickKids in Toronto. The challenge: to design the room of the future to ensure pediatric patients have the most comfortable, safe and efficient experience at the hospital.
Nidhi was introduced to the concept of a hackathon by her friends in computer science and software engineering. She says, “The concept of staying up all night with your friends to solve a problem sounded like a game that you needed to defeat.” She thought her education in healthcare meant she didn’t have the skills to be a contributable team member during a hackathon until she heard about Hack the Hospital – a hackathon at SickKids hospital where she could apply her knowledge and skills as a physical therapy student to design a more comfortable space for patients. “Hack the Hospital tackles issues in the current healthcare system. As a future physiotherapist, I wanted to learn more on how infrastructure can be designed to maintain the physical and mental well-being of both the patients and all healthcare professionals.”
During Hack the Hospital, Nidhi worked with an international team of experts to develop an innovative solution to two challenges in pediatric hospitals:
- Former pediatric patients who were in isolation for an extended period reported that their rooms felt very depressing and like a jail.
- Physiotherapists had limited space to bring in equipment to perform therapeutic exercises and could not take the kids to the common spaces due to isolation restrictions.
Working together, they were able to quickly produce a prototype and business model to address these two challenges. Their solution: MyGateWay – an interactive wall that connects children to the world outside. When it is time for school, MyGateWay connects children from other hospitals in a virtual classroom. After school, the interactive wall offers children games and rehabilitation therapy activities to help with their recovery by making it more fun for pediatric patients and easier for physiotherapists by limiting the equipment they need to bring.
When asked if Hack the Hospital sparked an interest in working with children, Nidhi says, “physiotherapy is infinitely diverse, encompassing cardiorespiratory fitness, neuromuscular disorders, from pediatrics to geriatrics, oncology to pelvic heath, and acute injuries to long term care. As a first-year student, I want to keep my options open to different populations and work environments. I look forward to exploring this on our active clinical exposure days and placements.”