What is the Military Medicine Hackathon?
The Military Medicine Hackathon: Prolonged Care (MMH) is a two-day innovation event designed to bring Belgian Defence medical personnel together with civilian emergency clinicians, biomedical engineers, MedTech industry partners, academic researchers, and international allies.
Together, participants will develop fast, practical concepts and prototypes to tackle multi-domain Prolonged Casualty Care challenges across land, air, and maritime operations in contested, resource-constrained environments – grounded directly in operational priorities set by BELDEF units.
Shaping the challenges
The challenges for the hackathon will be defined over the next few months through a series of workshops with Belgian Defence staff and key actors in the civilian trauma care and prehospital MedTech industry ecosystem. They will be focused on four key subjects:
→ Field Clinical Procedures
How might we help combat medics keep casualties alive across the continuum of care—from point of injury (Role 0) through to Role 1 medical care—without connectivity when evacuation takes days, while safely managing long-term tourniquet application?
→ Logistics, Resupply & Sustainment
How might we deliver blood products far forward in contested environments and help Role 1 units stretch limited medical supplies over days instead of hours?
→ Mental Health & Cognitive Performance
How might we build pre-deployment resilience, support isolated medics making difficult decisions without relief, and prevent fatigue-driven errors during continuous operations?
→ Telemedicine in Contested Environments
How might we deliver specialist advice over ultra-short, low-bandwidth bursts, or provide intelligent, on-device guidance when all connectivity is lost?
Think you can contribute to the workshops? If you have expertise or ideas that could help shape these challenges, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch with us.
Who can take part in the MHH?
The Military Medicine Hackathon is open to anyone driven to innovate for prolonged care in austere environments. We welcome BELDEF medical personnel, civilian clinicians, MedTech companies, researchers, engineers, developers, and creative problem-solvers to collaborate and build together.
This includes Belgian Defence medical personnel ensuring concepts directly address operational realities; civilian emergency, ICU, and trauma specialists bringing critical clinical expertise; MedTech, biotech, and drone industry partners with advanced hardware, diagnostics, and resupply tech; software, AI, and communications engineers developing offline decision-support and low-bandwidth solutions; and academic researchers and students pushing the boundaries of human performance, simulation, and medical engineering.
Not sure if the Military Medicine Hackathon is for you? Just reach out; we’d be happy to discuss!
Want to bring a team of friends or colleagues? Fantastic! Just make sure everyone registers individually, and be ready to connect with new teammates along the way.
We’ve done this before. Check it out!
While the Military Medicine Hackathon is the first of its kind, it builds on a proven track record of Defence innovation hackathons. Take a look at what happens when defence experts, tech innovators, and passionate problem-solvers come together in an intense, high-energy environment!
What to expect?
The event will follow the same formula: a hugely diverse group of smart, dedicated participants, a brilliant setting, and an agenda packed with hands-on sessions and meaningful challenges.
Agenda Preview:
Day 1: challenge briefings, ideation, expert interviews, and hacking time
Day 2: more hacking, more experts, pitch training, final pitches and reception.
Stay ahead — join the early list!