Kolba Lab’s long-awaited Social Innovation Camp 2016 will take place in the hotel Park Resort Aghveran, on July 8-10. This year’s competition was looking for innovative tech solutions to health issues in Armenia. We’re very happy that the call for ideas sparked a lot of interest amongst our community, and we received more than 100 applications!

Following evaluation by Kolba Lab’s professional jury, which included a mixture of experts from Armenia and Silicon Valley, the following five ideas were selected to participate in the innovation weekend:

  1. Davit Kocharyan- Appahov.am. A mobile app providing users with information on health insurance options, and medical insurance packages offered by local insurance companies. The resource will also contain a list of health institutions that provide those services.
  2. Gayane Hovhannisyan – a mobile app for kids with autism will be created through engagement of experts working with autistic individuals and parents who have kids with special needs. The mobile app will take into account issues that kids with autism face and, with the help of the social stories, will develop their communication skills and help them become more independent in their daily life. The app will allow parents to follow the kids even from distance.
  3. Satenik Grigoryan – a mobile app for connecting doctors and patients. By selecting health problems from a database, patients will be asked several questions that doctors ordinarily ask during preliminary consultations. Based on the rich database, the app will help to find a proper specialist related to the health problem in question. This will help to minimize attempts at self-diagnosis and self-healing, and will balance unchecked and incorrect information available on the internet.
  4. Seda Papoyan – Hello Doctor is an Armenian app that will help to choose obstetrician-gynecologists and pediatricians, and get fast response and first aid. The app will help users find information on different subjects related to mother and child healthcare, and will allow constant communication with the doctor via text or even video calls. A ratings system will be included as well to help choose the right doctor.
  5. Satik Badeyan – Health Mediator will be an online platform to raise awareness of patients and medical workers from a legal perspective. It will help them to learn more about their rights and responsibilities. Furthermore, by using the app people can ask questions and get expert responses within two days, as well as discuss questions and get tailored suggestions based on their issues and needs.

By participating in three-day Social Innovation Camp the finalists and shortlisted idea leaders will work together with designers, programmers, business and marketing specialists, and experts on social issues to create joint prototypes or models of their innovative solutions, before presenting to the jury for the final evaluation. The winners of the camp will be selected on Sunday July 10, 15:00-17:00  in Park Resort Aghveran hotel, where the closing and awards ceremony will take place.

In case you are looking for more details on social innovation, you can start from here.