Cogniss powers student-led health innovation at Barts and The London Digital Health Hackathon
Cogniss enabled a new generation of health innovators to bring their ideas to life at the Barts and The London Digital Health Hackathon on March 2, 2025. Held at the historic Old Library at the Garrod Building, Queen Mary University of London, the event brought together students from medicine, science, and technology across institutions including UCL and Imperial College London.
As the platform partner, Cogniss played a central role by providing its no-code platform, enabling participants to build functional digital health apps within a single day. Organised by the Barts and The London Innovation in Medicine Society, the student-led event challenged attendees to design health app solutions without requiring any prior coding experience.
Mentors, guest speakers and workshop leads supported teams as they developed their ideas into working apps. Using Cogniss, participants were able to test and iterate on their concepts quickly and efficiently.
Participants also took part in discussions and workshops on healthtech entrepreneurship, pitching, go-to-market strategies, and product development. Speakers included Dr. Lloyd Humphreys, Managing Director at Cogniss; Christian Kumar, venture builder and CEO at MedTech Makers Lab; and Dr. Rosie Scott, NHS Clinical Entrepreneur and radiologist. “I loved all your smart ideas to make the NHS fit for the future. You’re all winners in my eyes,” said Dr. Scott.
The panel of judges featured leaders across clinical practice and digital health. Reflecting on Cogniss’s role in the event, Dr. Humphreys said, “Events like this are so important because they show students and young innovators that it's possible to start building real solutions right now. By making development more accessible and better aligned with real-world health system needs, we can keep their passion alive and help bring ideas closer to patient impact.”
The winning team developed "FindMyTrial," a swipe-based app to match people with clinical trials suited to them. Aimed at increasing public participation in clinical research, the app received strong support from the judging panel. "This app looks into easing the research process, which marks the beginning of any invention, tech or otherwise," said team member Ankita Vasudevan, a biomedical engineering student.
The event was supported by AMBOSS, The Medical Defence Union (MDU), and the National MedTech Foundation. Together with Cogniss, these partners helped equip the next generation of clinical leaders and innovators with tools to take their first steps into digital health.
To learn more about the Cogniss platform and how to run your own hackathon, contact: contact@cogniss.com