Georgetown Hosts 3rd Annual H2AI Hackathon, Bringing Students Nationwide Together To Tackle Healthcare Challenges with AI

(April 23, 2026) — The third-annual Healthcare Hackathon with AI (H2AI), hosted by Georgetown University medical students, brought together graduate and undergraduate students in medicine, computer science, engineering, business, nursing and health alongside industry representatives to build AI-enabled prototypes addressing real-world clinical challenges and revolutionize patient care.

The three-day competition, held April 10-12 on the university’s campus, attracted more than 190 participants, mostly college students, representing institutions from across the country. In addition to Georgetown, participants came from University of Pennsylvania, George Washington University, George Mason University, Northern Virginia Community College, Claremont Graduate University, Western University, Washington University of Virginia, Western Governors University, Philadelphia College Osteopathic Medicine South Georgia, University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins.

The program centered on collaborative team-based development and mentorship from industry and clinical leaders. Final student presentations were made before a panel of judges.

This year’s hackathon was organized by a student team led by Zahra Ahmad (M’28) and Nika Shroff (M’28), alongside co-founders Jacqueline Sandling (M’26) and Yumin Gao (M’26).

2026 Winners

Grand Prize: RxPal

Nika Shroff (left) and Zahra Ahmad (right), H2AI coordinators, presented the grand prize to (middle left to right) Scott Durrant, Steven Sands, Phil Rozendaal and Matthew Caffet for “RxPal,” an AI-enabled platform designed to bring real-time medication cost, coverage and prior authorization insights into the prescribing moment.

LucyRx Prize: CareSync

(Left to right) Kudzani Koketso (self-employed), Deeksha Ravi (George Washington University), Kanika Sachdeva (Penn Medicine employee), Phillip Kisembo (Merck), and Renuka Dixit (University of Minnesota, not pictured), received the LucyRx Prize for “CareSync,” an AI-enabled platform designed to reduce hospital readmissions and improve care coordination.

People’s Choice: DischargeIQ

Brandon Ehrlich, H2AI fundraising lead (center), presented Sach Thakker (left) and Atef Fayed (right) of Georgetown University School of Medicine and Ravi Suresh (Healthcare Startup, not pictured), the People’s Choice Award for “DischargeIQ,” a discharge intelligence platform aimed at reducing hospital readmissions.

Best in Tech: Earlybird

Elaine Chu (left) of the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and Rohan Jois of Georgetown University School of Foreign Service received the Best in Tech award for “Earlybird,” an AI voice companion designed to detect early cognitive changes associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Cura Personalis Award: ARIA

(Left to right) Judges Gultekin Gollu and Jean Kim stand with Cura Personalis Award recipients Hailey Mueller, Ayaad Akand and Nirvahn Thakur (not pictured: Rachel Louissaint and Ryan McReynolds) of the Georgetown University School of Health. The award was presented by Cindy Zheng, H2AI Case Challenges lead (right). The winning project, “ARIA,” is a voice-first home health-monitoring system designed to support recovery after knee replacement surgery.

Healthcare Entrepreneurship Award: Kadence

(Left to right) Maureen Robbins (judge) stands with Aisha Benzine (Western Governors University), Parker Graham (Illumina Computing Group), Javier Arana (George Mason University), Joshua Almonte (George Mason University) and Mohammad Qader (Western Governors University), who received the Healthcare Entrepreneurship Award for “Kadence,” an AI-powered system for monitoring post-surgical recovery in the home. Their award was presented by H2AI’s Francis Arellano (second from right) and judge and keynote speaker Sudha Jayaraman (far right).