DIABETES X INNOVATION SUMMIT & HACKATHON
Build Trustworthy Care for Life’s Biggest Barriers
Join 100+ innovators for a 3-day sprint to reimmagine healthcare!
Track : Early onset diabetes
20-23 November 2026 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
About the Hackathon
From Challenges to Solutions
Inspired by the collaborative approach of MIT Hacking Medicine, the event focuses on bringing people with different expertise together to address real healthcare problems and develop impactful solutions. MIT Hacking Medicine’s model emphasizes diverse teams and practical healthcare innovation.
Together, we can move beyond simply managing diabetes toward reimagining the future of diabetes care.
Reimagining the Future of Diabetes Prevention and Early Care
What if we could identify the risk of diabetes earlier—and intervene before it changes a person’s life?
The MIT Hacking Medicine Kuala Lumpur: Early-Onset Diabetes Hackathon brings together clinicians, researchers, engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, data scientists, students, patients, and healthcare leaders to tackle one of the most important challenges in modern healthcare: the rising burden of diabetes among younger people.
This intensive, multidisciplinary hackathon will focus on the journey from risk to early detection, prevention, and personalised intervention.
Participants will identify real-world problems faced by young people, families, healthcare professionals, and health systems, then form diverse teams to develop innovative solutions that could make a meaningful difference.
Challenge Areas
How can we identify young people at high risk of developing diabetes earlier?
Can AI and health data help predict risk before symptoms appear?
How can we help young people build healthier habits without stigma?
How can we improve continuous monitoring and personalised prevention?
How can we make diabetes prevention affordable and scalable across Southeast Asia?
DAY 1–3 — THE HACKATHON: FROM PROBLEM TO PROTOTYPE
Friday–Sunday, 20–22 November 2026 | M World Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
The hackathon runs across the weekend and leads into the summit on Monday.
| Day | Focus |
|---|---|
| Day 2 | Problem Discovery → Team Formation → Need Validation |
| Day 3 | Ideation → Solution Design → Prototype Development |
| Day 4 | Validation → Pitch Preparation → Final Demonstration |
| Grand Finale | Final Pitches → Judging → Awards → Pilot-Ready Solutions |
INTENDED LEGACY
MIT Hacking Medicine Malaysia 2026 aims to establish a long-term platform for healthcare innovation by connecting:
Patients + Clinicians + Engineers + Researchers + Entrepreneurs + Industry + Investors + Government
The programme is designed to move beyond discussion and create a pipeline from:
REAL PROBLEM → INNOVATION → PROTOTYPE → VALIDATION → PARTNERSHIP → POTENTIAL IMPLEMENTATION
From Problem to Prototype
Inspired by the MIT Hacking Medicine approach, participants will begin with real healthcare challenges rather than predetermined solutions. Multidisciplinary teams will then work intensively to understand the problem, develop ideas, test assumptions, build prototypes, and present their solutions to a panel of experts. MIT has documented how this approach has produced diabetes-related innovations, including Podi metrics, which originated from an MIT Hacking Medicine hackathon and focused on detecting diabetic foot-ulcer risk earlier.
Who Should Join?
We welcome:
You don’t need to be a programmer. You need a willingness to collaborate and solve a real problem. Your perspective matters.
The Hackathon is open to all
participants 18 and over. No background limitations.
35%
Healthcare Profesionals
30%
Software & Data Engineers
10%
Business Professionals
10%
Designers
5%
Policy Makers
The Goal
We are not simply looking for another diabetes app.
We are looking for new ways to prevent, detect, understand, and respond to diabetes earlier.