Behind the Scenes of a Health Systems Simulation: Why We Built the MARCH Hackathon
13 May 2025 London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine https://lshtm.ac.uk/themes/custom/lshtm/images/lshtm-logo-black.png
Anjolaoluwa’s Perspective:
When I first joined LSHTM as a Student Liaison Officer (SLO) for the Maternal, Adolescent, Reproductive & Child Health (MARCH) Centre, I didn't expect to find myself creating the fictional nation of Pumphandle and spending my Christmas break creating fictional economic and climate data... but that's exactly what happened when I started designing the MARCH Hackathon which I proposed as the annual strategic event.
The idea grew from my experience competing in a McKinsey hackathon, The Austerity Olympics, five years ago. It was a similar style to coding hackathons, a pressure-cooker event where everything changes halfway through, requiring innovation and adaptability. I loved the way it forced fast thinking, collaboration, and creativity. So, after our introductory meeting to the MARCH Centre, I remember thinking: "How can we do a hackathon here at LSHTM for MARCH?"
With incredible support from our team, we've built a three-hour simulation where teams act as consultants to a fictional government, the Republic of Pumphandle. Their challenge? To propose sustainable solutions for maternal and adolescent health. But what participants didn't know is that halfway through the event, a climate disaster hits. Budgets are slashed, priorities shift, and the teams will have to adapt under pressure.
A huge part of the learning came from the application of my own course content, such as modules on health systems and economic evaluation.
Concepts I'd seen in theory were suddenly helping me develop the data. My highlight of the event was the enthusiasm, even beforehand, and watching students from different backgrounds come together to contribute. That mix of perspectives is exactly what global health needs more of.
If one participant walks away realising they want to be the person who makes these decisions in real life or that their theoretical knowledge has important real-life applications, then it'll have been worth every minute.
Noemi’s Perspective:
When Anjolaoluwa proposed the idea of a hackathon at a MARCH meeting, I immediately embraced it with enthusiasm, and soon found myself deeply involved, eventually helping coordinate many aspects of the event.
There's a lot to consider when setting up something like this: developing the participant materials, promoting the event, inviting judges, planning the schedule and prizes, managing the budget...but thanks to the incredible support of the School’s events team, the SLOs, and MARCH staff, everything came together on time.
Of course, organising such an event is a fun and practical way to strengthen the famous "soft skills" - organisation, leadership, communication, teamwork - mentioned in every job description. But what I took away went far beyond that.
It was a chance to connect meaningfully with the MARCH Centre team, engage with experienced professionals who joined as judges, and collaborate with students from across different programmes. I was especially impressed by how everyone brought their own skills and energy into the preparation process.
Tickets sold out in just a few days, and the participants joined the event with the same enthusiasm. We kicked off the afternoon with an inspiring lecture by Prof Anthony Costello and Maria Walawender - invited by a fellow SLO, Mishal Ninan - on the effects of climate change on maternal and child health. That set the tone perfectly for what followed: an afternoon of intense teamwork, where MSc and PhD students worked alongside faculty staff in a dynamic space filled with stimulating and thoughtful discussions (as participants later described it). Some teams even skipped the coffee break to get right back to work (I've never seen people run from free food at LSHTM!)
The feedback from attendees was incredibly positive, with many highlighting the fun they had and the real-world relevance of the challenge.
My initial focus on logistics and making sure everything ran smoothly quickly gave way to excitement and gratitude as I watched the energy build around me. I was genuinely impressed by the creativity and quality of the strategies the teams developed in just a few hours, and so were the judges. But what I'll remember most is the spirit of collaboration, mutual respect, and dedication that both participants and organisers brought to the day.
I hope to find the same positive and inclusive atmosphere in every (fictional or non-fictional) Republic out there. It would certainly make them healthier - and happier – places.
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