In the trendiest part of downtown Toronto, hundreds of young entrepreneurs gathered over a weekend in September to find solutions to Pakistan’s development challenges. They were there to engage “the world to reshape Pakistan.”
An eclectic group of almost 100 young men and women, some with no Pakistani heritage, got together to address the biggest challenges in education, energy, health, housing, human rights, and retail in Pakistan.
The youth were mentored by Canadian experts over the three-day event where some entrepreneurs working in teams toiled for 48 hours straight to come up with actionable solutions.
Downtown Toronto is a happening place on Friday evenings and over the weekend. For young revellers, the city has plenty to offer.
But this Friday, 100-strong youth and their mentors decided to cram into the studio of a software firm and pour over the challenges of a country located thousands of miles away.
They called it Pakathon: A hackathon for Pakistan’s development challenges.
A movement that started in Boston reached Toronto and several other cities bringing together hundreds of youth and their mentors to brainstorm solutions for Pakistan’s development challenges over a short period and then present their solutions to a panel of judges who would rank projects based on their utility and ease of implementation.
The Toronto Pakathon ran from September 26 to 28. Individual entrepreneurs presented their ideas on Friday night and invited others to join their teams. In 60 seconds or less, each entrepreneur presented the ‘big’ idea to the audience.
Teams were formed late Friday evening. Starting Saturday morning, the teams were busy researching and developing concepts, prototypes, and business plans. By Sunday afternoon, they were ready to present their plans to a panel of judges.
Integrated ambulance dispatch system
The winning project proposed an integrated ambulatory response system for urban Pakistan. At present, several private and public sector ambulance operators run an uncoordinated service. In case of an emergency, several ambulances arrive when only one or few are needed. At other occasions, none arrives in time to rescue the patient.
The solution: a unified dispatch system that directs the closet ambulance to the site. This would require the ambulances to be GPS enabled and the operators to be willing to share their fleet details with the shared dispatch system.
Also read: ‘Civic hackathon’ to improve e-governance
This has obvious benefits for the critically injured or ill in Pakistan. Such systems exist in developed countries. Bringing this system to urban Pakistan requires modest investment, but a willingness by ambulance operators to pool resources. The IT-based solution could be implemented in less time with exceeding returns.
Geo-located health emergency alerts
Another IT solution for the health sector involved a text-message based alert system which would send a distress signal to pre-registered healthcare professionals in the vicinity, who may volunteer to attend to a person in distress while the ambulance is still in transit.
Imagine if a large registry of healthcare professionals who are willing to volunteer in emergencies is developed. Once registered, their location in real time is known to the system through their smart phones.
Now, if a child chokes on a small toy and is in distress. The parents call for an ambulance while someone texts for help. Based on the family’s location, a distress call is texted to the registered healthcare professionals who are in the vicinity of the family in need. The healthcare professional receives the text and realises that someone on the same street is in need of medical attention. They can rush to assist while the family awaits the ambulance.
Again, such a system can save lives.
source: dawn.com
Tags: business, Business news, Pakathon, Pakistan Tech companies, Pakistanis in cananda, Tech news, Technology News
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