Hackathon Harvard 2026 is a global innovation competition in the healthcare sector, aimed at finding solutions to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to improve the quality and operational efficiency of the healthcare system.
The contest is annually organized by the Faculty of Health System Innovation (HSIL) of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health with simultaneous Hubs in many countries. The event gathers students, researchers, medical experts, engineers and programmers to cooperate in developing highly applicable technology solutions.
In Vietnam, the National Hub is co-organized by Hanoi Medical University, Phenikaa University and PATH. The competition will take place live at Phenikaa University for 48 consecutive hours from April 10 to 11, 2026, and will also connect online with Harvard and international Hubs.
In 2026, Hackathon is themed "Building High-Value Health Systems: Leveraging AI" (Building high-value health systems through AI applications). The organizers encourage teams to propose creative, feasible and potentially practical solutions to solve the challenges of the health system in Vietnam and globally.
The main contents include: Electronic health record (EHR) analysis to build a model for predicting health monitoring and treatment results; AI application in diagnostics, medical imaging analysis and clinical data for early disease detection; development of smart chatbots to support patients and medical staff based on large language models.
In addition, the contest raises the problem of fragmentation in healthcare, information overload, shortage of medical personnel, strengthening coordination in continuous treatment procedures, developing personalized preventive care programs, as well as applying AI in pediatrics and raising public health awareness.
According to regulations, the organizing committee encourages multi-disciplinary teams, consisting of 3-5 members. Participants are students, researchers and experts in the fields of health, information technology, data science, engineering and business; age limits are not limited. Contestants form their own teams before registering and need to have at least one member who can communicate in English to participate in the incubation program after the competition.
For 48 hours, the teams will participate in the online opening session with Harvard and global Hubs; attend topics on AI in medicine; work in product development teams; receive advice from professional advisors; and present solutions to the judges to be scored and awarded prizes.
The organizers expect the contest to contribute to promoting practical AI solutions, supporting the construction of a higher quality, more efficient and sustainable healthcare system.
Contestants can register for the competition online through the official website of the competition, the deadline is until March 8, 2026. After this time, the organizers will consider and select the best proposals to participate in the presentation round, then, they will contact and notify the selected teams.
