Binaytara Foundation Starts Development of Cancer App

The Foundation Participated in Hackathon by Microsoft to Create Prototype

The Binaytara Foundation teamed up with employees of Microsoft to work on the development of our Cancer Crush app in this year’s Hackathon. Microsoft’s Hackathon is a program that gives Microsoft employees an opportunity to work on projects outside their organization. We were lucky to be chosen as one of the hackathon projects and to have one of our volunteers step in to be our sponsor for the project. We had help from a team of ten Microsoft employees for the project. Three were designers, two were engineers for the front end of the app, and five were engineers for the backend. We needed assistance to program and design our upcoming cancer app. 

The cancer app we are working on is called Cancer Crush and it is a continuing educational game that provides oncologists real-life scenarios of patients with cancer. This game will allow oncologists to play as a doctor and answer multiple choice questions about cancer. If you make the wrong decision, the app will explain what you should have done instead to help the patient get better. If you choose the right answer you will also get an explanation of why that is the right decision. 

During our time working with the Microsoft team, we made a lot of progress on our app. They were able to create seven different scenario questions with answers and explanations and design our app with all the frontend and backend coding to make it run smoothly. 

“I had a fantastic time working with the team! Everyone was very invested in this project and there was a lot of team morale.”

Anika, Microsoft Software Engineer

At the end of the Hackathon on September 23rd, we showcased a demo video about our cancer app project at the Microsoft Science Fair. We made a poster board that included updates of our progress, highlighted our Foundation’s mission, and shared our hackbox journey with many Microsoft employees and visitors.

Binaytara’s Development and Event Manager, Nancy Ko, who led the cancer app project, says, 

“The start of this hackathon project was exciting and new for many of us who haven’t experienced a hackathon before. We were fortunate that we had a couple of veteran hackers on our team to help guide the application, project management, and teamwork of the group. It was inspiring to see the enthusiasm and talent of these twelve strangers working together. We learned a lot and have a prototype we can expand upon. But aside from that we also made some good friends for our organization.”

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The Binaytara Foundation is a global cancer non-profit dedicated to improving access to cancer care in the United States and abroad through education and innovative program models that break down barriers and advance best practices in hematology and oncology. Binaytara Foundation’s major projects include hematology and oncology conferences, and the establishment of a cancer hospital in Nepal.