Hack For Heroes: Building Rehab Platform For Wounded Troops

A Tel Aviv cybersecurity company and a Jerusalem-based non-profit have come together in a hackathon to improve the rehabilitation experience of wounded Israeli soldiers and others receiving the same therapies. 

Hilma, an organization of Israeli high-tech veterans channeling their know-how into the betterment of society, began working on a platform to improve the laborious manual system of scheduling of rehabilitation treatments in hospitals. 

But faced with development difficulties, its team turned to Astrix Security, a company that helps protect businesses with third-party software integrated into their systems, for some expert advice. 

The day-long session took place at the Astrix offices this month, amid increased strain on Israel’s healthcare system due to the massive October 7 terror attack, the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza it sparked and constant rocket fire from Hezbollah from Lebanon. 

“We wanted to do voluntary work and it was important for us to do something substantial,” Shibby Sadot, VP People at Astrix Security, tells NoCamels.

Some of the Astrix team had recently returned from fighting as reservist troops in Gaza, and they took the lead in the hackathon, alongside former soldiers working at Hilma and young people doing non-military national service there.  

Due to the high number of wounded soldiers due to the war, hospital rehab departments in Israel – which had limited space even before the conflict began – have become inundated and overwhelmed, Sadot explains. 

In order to combat this issue, Hilma developed an app that would streamline appointment scheduling for patients, who would often spend hours working out where and when they were receiving treatments on that day, deciphering information from a constantly updated and text-heavy whiteboard in the ward. 

“What Hilma did was turn this whiteboard into a dashboard that goes to the cell phones of the patients and the people who take care of them,” Sadot says. 

“A patient just has to get out of bed and look at his cell phone to see the exact list of treatments he’s going to have that day.” 

The medical professionals such as physical therapists who treat the wounded soldiers also get the same data delivered to their own phones, so, as Sadot puts it, “they have a clear idea of what their day is going to look like.”  

The hours that patients and carers had previously dedicated to describing and deciphering the daily schedule can now be spent actually in treatments, she explains. 

Sadot says the Astrix staff includes “a team of experts” who served in elite IDF cybersecurity and signal intelligence units as well as former combat soldiers. And all of them, she adds, were eager to jump in when approached by the Hilma team for help. 

The two organizations prepared well for the hackathon, meeting in the week before the event to discuss what exactly the new platform would look like and what its rules would be. 

The entire Astrix company was involved in the project, Sadot says, from designers and R&D to product marketing. 

To prevent cyberattacks on hospitals through the platform, Astrix strengthened the access controls and the authentication measures it requires, and also helped to advance its code so that it could be scaled up as more facilities begin to use the system. 

According to Sadot, the team at Astrix was “amazed” at the work being done by Hilma. 

“At Hilma, we develop technological solutions to societal challenges,” one of its staff Elisheva Isaacs told NoCamels recently.

“Technology, which is available to everyone through smartphones and computers, presents the option to reach many people.” 

There are now plans to expand the new platform to multiple hospitals in Israel, improving time management and easing frustration for patients and medical professionals alike. 

Hilma had a good idea, says Sadot, but could not bring it to fruition. And by working together, the startup and the non-profit turned an idea into what she calls “a very simple and very easy to implement” platform to help wounded warriors and their carers alike.

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