2022 Physical Disability Hackathon

The following challenges are from our recent 2022 hackathon around Physical Disability and it's impact on access to healthcare

The original challenge videos have been replaced by transcripts, these should add context to the solutions created during the events.

Challenge 1 - Autoimmune Inner Ear Deafness (Mexico)

Hi, I'm Alejandro. I live in Mexico and work in the Oncology Unit at AstraZeneca. I have a hearing problem called autoimmune inner ear deafness. I have been gradually losing my hearing and I require the use of hearing aids.

Since the start of the pandemic, it has been challenging for me to attend every appointment with my doctors. This is because face masks act as a barrier and muffle the sound of the voice. I had gotten used to reading people’s lips and relating the sounds with what I could see, which helped me for some time; now, the face mask has made this difficult and communication is a real challenge. I have been looking for a solution, using headphones or turning on the speaker on my cell phone, moving in closer to the doctor or activating the dictation setting to turn speech to a written note in my phone. This is now a real challenge in both my personal and private life, and I would like to solve it somehow.

Challenge 2 - Muscular Dystrophy (United Kingdom)

Hi, my name is Sanjay and I'm a Stability Program Manager for AstraZeneca, based in Macclesfield, UK. I have worked for AstraZeneca now for 24 years, though by profession, I’m a chemical engineer. I have a type of muscular dystrophy that affects the muscles in my arms, legs, hips, or shoulders and it's a progressive condition. When I first started with AstraZeneca, I was walking - though finding it a bit difficult to climb stairs - then I started to walk with a walking stick. For the last 14 years or so, I've been using an electrically powered wheelchair and progressively, my condition will get worse. So yeah, I've still got some way to go on that, but we'll see what happens.

 The challenges I face accessing health care are around getting on and off things. I'll share some examples; before I got the wheelchair, it had been about 10 years since I'd been to see the dentist because I couldn't get in or out of the dentist's chair. Even after, I had to find somewhere, with level access for me to get into that building and a ground floor room with enough space for me to manoeuvre my wheelchair. Once in, I recline my chair back and I'm able to get my dental treatment, whatever needed.

 A similar thing happened at a hospital appointment. I had to go for an MRI scan, and it was very tricky to get on and off the [scanning] couch. It wouldn't quite go low enough for me to transfer onto it and the hoist in the hospital wouldn’t lift me high enough to clear the bed either. So, it required a lot of manhandling just to get me on and off the scanning couch, which wasn't ideal.

As a final example, I face a similar situation, or some similar difficulties when I go to have an eye test. Trying to find somewhere that's got enough space for me to get my wheelchair into the room and lined up next to the optometrist chair has been quite tricky. When I'm there, everything is setup a particular distance, so they do the best they can, and it’s been just about okay for me but it's not fully set up.

 Hopefully that gives you a flavour of some of the challenges I have accessing health care. Good luck and enjoy the hackathon! Thank you. 

Challange 3 - Albinism (South Africa)

My name is Desmond. I’m from the Free State in South Africa. I'm a Journalism and Media Studies graduate and I love it. Currently, I'm an intern in one of the established media organization so, I'm into research, reading books, knowing what is going on - in fact, I can say I'm into current affairs!

As I said before, I'm Desmond and I am living with Albinoism. Albinoism is a genetic disorder that affects both the eyesight and the skin because of the lack of pigmentation. One of the challenges that most people living, with Albinoism face, is that they must always make sure they wear sunglasses and apply sunscreen, especially when they're outdoors to protect their skin from the sun.

 When it comes to the workplace, because of my eyesight is affected I need reading devices on my computer, for example, JAWS (Job Access With Speech) program is a screen reader that reads to you whatever that you are typing on the computer without having to strain your eyes looking at the computer for hours. For me personally, I struggle with the font that most companies use, it can be really small. So, when it comes to a person living with Albinoism like myself, you need to make sure is that the font is big enough so that I can focus on it without having to strain my eyes. Further, whenever I'm in the office, I need to sit in a position with little sunlight coming into the office, else it will directly affect my eyes and cause me to lose concentration on what I'm doing. Therefore, the layout of the office is very important. Perhaps if I had a corner where there's enough lighting and the fonts are big enough to accommodate me such that I am able to read what is on the paper without having to bring the paper close to my eyes and struggle.

Outside of work, some of the challenges that I face daily, are when I want to go out with friends. At night, I must ensure I’m conscious of the time. When it's dark, my eyesight deteriorates which, means I cannot see very far into the distance, so I can’t just walk down the street. During the day, I don't have many obstacles or challenges. I can do the same activities as any abled individual, I just need to be careful of traffic because if it is too bright, I cannot focus on the cars coming straight towards me.

Thank you. 

Challange 4 - Bipolar disorder (South Africa)

Morning everyone! My name is Amanda and I live in South Africa. I am currently studying nursing, which I love doing because I'm passionate about helping people. I'm a person that lives with Bipolar. I was not born with it, but it developed after receiving no support from family and friends. My disorder means I struggle to concentrate – sometimes I’m hyper and other times I’m down. I can manage mostly but it's very much painful not to have support from family. I have told myself that this won't discourage me from being who I am and want to be or reaching for what I want in life.

Today, I'll be telling you the challenges I face with Bipolar at home. Sometime when I’m down, I like to be alone. My peers know I like being alone so they don’t talk to me and I can come and go as I please. Usually, people misunderstand and think I am being rude or strange. I try to ignore it and just listen to my heart when it tells me I want to be by myself. I do not shout, but I just ignore any carry on -I’ll come back when I have had fresh air and feel relaxed again.

I do not have friends, because I feel they are a bad influence when I am hyper.

I like being alone a lot, so me having bipolar leads to me just to be alone.

When I'm happy, I'm happy I'm all over. I can just listen to music and make noise. Therefore, I decided to move out and live alone because I did not want to disturb anyone when I am happy. It’s kind of hard.

In the workplace, I can manage it when I am by myself. As a nurse, it’s challenging when I am hyper because colleagues will be confused, try to discourage it or talk badly about me. I tend to ignore them and carry on with my work, but when I am down, some do not ask if I’m feeling ok – it makes me feel unsupported. Some do ask I tell them I am not okay. I know there are others at my workplace in the same situation, but I tend to just be by myself as I don’t want to disturb anyone when during my down days.

Despite what I am going through, I wanted to say - if there's anyone out there that that is bipolar, you can be who you want to be. Do not get discouraged by people who may judge you. If you feel a lack of support, make sure that you find people that like you. Those people will support you. It might be your friend. It might be someone from next door. It might be someone from work. Make sure that you surround yourself with people like that. I got help from someone at the workplace and she inspires me a lot. So, if you have the same situation, I would say - don't be discouraged. Reach for what you want, and you'll make it in life. 

Challange 5 - Asthma (South Africa)

Hello, my name is Unathi and I'm from South Africa. I am currently in training to be a health promoter in one of the clinics as I believe that health is our wealth. I chose this career to help other people in our communities and to keep a healthy lifestyle.

So, I am asthmatic. What it means for a person to be asthmatic, is that their airways get swollen, and produce extra mucus, which makes it difficult to breathe. A person with asthma can be triggered by dust or fumes causing an asthmatic attack.

The challenge I face at work is the damp and dust that trigger my asthma. I have to ask to be excused when this happens – some of my colleagues do not really understand. They think that I’m faking or being lazy – trying to get out of work. It’s sad because I don’t want to have the reputation that I’m lazy. I feel like they don't understand.

Another example in terms of challenges in the workplace is that when you are disabled, you are not granted independence. I feel that people doubt my abilities and don’t trust my opinion. This limits your advancements in terms of career and can be discouraging when aren’t physically able to do what you want to. I feel do not get the support I need but I have learnt to motivate and support myself. Just keep pushing forward.

Challange 6 - Visual Impairment (Japan)

Hi, I’m Ayako, I am working in AstraZeneca Japan. I have a sight disability and wanted to share some challenges I face in both personal and work environments related to healthcare access.

Due to the limitation of my sight, I struggle to spot the signs of poor health, for example an abnormal complexion or blood-stained stool. Beyond that, I cannot see symptoms in my children. I called an ambulance for my child, I was distressed because I could not tell the emergency call responder if my own child was alive or not. At the time, my other child helped me and eventually my child’s condition became stable. I think it would be great, however, if there was a way for people with a sight disability to be able to monitor our own health and the health of our family member.

The second challenge comes when I visit a hospital or clinic, before receiving healthcare services. It seems trivial, but I do not understand instructions because of my sight disability. For example, when I am asked to “Please follow the number shown on screen” or “Go to the corner with the green sign” – I do not understand.

Special support for such situation is not available at all healthcare providers, and sometimes systems are designed not anticipating people with a disability like me. As a result, I tend to depend on someone who can go to healthcare provider with me. Sometimes, I hesitate to visit a hospital or clinic because of such challenges. Furthermore, it tends to be a challenge to visit healthcare facility alone because I cannot see the map. All in all, I wish I had support to remove obstacles in the journey to the clinic and during.

A further challenge comes after I have accessed healthcare. Plainly, there is a limitation for me to see and judge for myself so it’s important that healthcare providers adhere to rules. For example, if a drug has a certain shape or package, it is easier for us to identify the drug by touch. On the other hand, if rules are changed without warning or not followed, I can easily become confused. If the location of a drug has been changed by someone else, I cannot find it – or worse, I could take the wrong medication which may be fatal.

Before that, I need to have a prescription to purchase medicine from the pharamacy. At the hospital, I typically receive multiple documents in addition to the prescription like receipts etc. If the paper size or shape is the same, I cannot tell which is the prescription. To get around this, I ask the doctor to fold only the prescription so that I know which to bring to the pharamacist. It is a mental burden to explain the adjustments needed for my disability every time I go to a healthcare provider. Even after explaining, not everyone is supportive.

I hope it becomes easier for me to use different healthcare providers including managing the paper documents needed across different facilities.

Thank you everyone for your attention.

There are many people not only me who have various types of disability and feel challenges for healthcare access. It could be you or people who are close to you. Through this event, we are hoping that more people become aware of such challenges and as a result, we see more improvements in society. We are looking forward to hearing your ideas! 

Challange 7 - Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis (United States of America)

Hi there, my name is Mark. I am an associate director at Alexion Pharmaceuticals in the Bioanalytical and Biomarkers department - we develop analytical methods that help us provide data for preclinical and clinical trials and try to answer questions regarding our drug treatments. I live with a rare disease. It's called Hypokalemic Periodic Paralysis, which is a fancy way of saying that my body does not process potassium the way most people do, and it can lead to muscle weakness. This is not paralysis in the sense that I don't feel anything, it is more motor driven, where I lose the tone in my muscles. My prognosis, I'm a high-functioning case, but as I get older, there will be things I can no longer do that I was able to do previously. It mostly affects my legs, I'm no longer able to stand from a seated position without using my arms. My physical activity, in terms of how strenuous it is, it has gotten less and less but currently it's okay. I'm on a standard of care medicine - it's been the standard of care for decades now. I have accepted that at some point I will probably not be able to walk unassisted, but my mind is still full. I still have a voice; I still have plenty I can offer for myself and society to go forward in life.

My challenge is that in the rare disease world - I know about this because of the work that I do - in the world of rare disease, it's very often difficult to be correctly networked with healthcare providers and with pharmaceutical researchers who may be working on potential treatments. These treatments could be above and beyond the standard of care, they could be breakthrough designation drugs that are fast-tracked because they show clear superiority to whatever the standard of care treatment is.

 In standard drug development there is standard research for common ailments and illnesses and diseases. The information sharing is quite broad and very well connected.

The challenge I am proposing is this – how can rare disease key opinion leaders and caretakers and health care providers and researchers be better connected? There are over 7500 identified rare diseases. Chances are if you have one out of those 7500, there are other people living with it, but how do we become better connected so we can share information that can help all of us? Thank you. 

2021 Neurodiversity Hackathon 

The following challenges are from our Neurodiversity hackathon held in 2021

The original challenge videos have been replaced by transcripts, these should add context to the solutions created during the events.

Challange 1 - Dyslexia

Hi, I'm Anna, I'm an Associate BA at AstraZeneca and I work in the clinical trial group. In clinical trials we have a saying “whatever is not written, did not happen”, which, of course means that we must document everything that happens and that we do during the study. This means that we document every single meeting, every single decision and every situation that happens and store them all in one place. My task is to take care of those documents and as you can probably imagine over years, I have accumulated and dealt with thousands of documents. The task is not only to archive them in a proper way, but more importantly to be able to find documents whenever they are needed. This means the better I prepare my archive, the easier it is for me to find it later. To help, I not only upload a file somewhere about, but I also create whole metadata around the files detailing when the file was prepared, the author, what the document contains and so on. This is crucial and it helps to find the file.

 I have dyslexia, which means that I read slower. This is not actually the most problematic part, however. The most problematic part is that I misspell things often, which can make it difficult to find the files later. Dyslexic people see words as shapes, so when the letters are in the wrong order, it doesn’t mean we cannot understand the word – we instead can guess because the shape is more or less the same. When we misspell a word, therefore, it is extremely difficult for us to find which letters are in the wrong order to correct it. It’s terrifying to me when I have to do something like this as I know how hard it is, but this is a crucial part of my job. If I misspell, I cannot use keywords later to search for a document. It’s also very hard for me to compare two documents and find the correct one. I would welcome whatever solutions you might come up with. Thanks.

Challange 2 - Aspergers

Hi, I'm Daniel. I work as a Data Scientist for AstraZeneca. I'm currently working on several different projects in the natural language processing space but my favourite project to date was a piece of work around data consolidation for clinical trials. We had to take many sources of data from different silos and find a way to collect that data into a single set. This required some out-of-the-box thinking, but in the end, it turned out to be quite impactful and useful solution. I'm part of the neurodiverse community here at AZ. I have Asperger’s - I was diagnosed only about a year ago. This has had a profound effect on many different aspects of my life, some things that are easy for others to do can take a whole lot longer for me, as well as costing more mental energy. Before I knew better, I used to say to myself, “why don't you just work harder and try harder? I mean, everyone else can do it, so why can't you?”, but I've learned over the last year that this is not the case. My brain just works differently from how I thought it did. I really enjoy problem solving, I like digging into details - this is a strength. The downside to this is that if I'm faced with a task that is too vague, I tend to find myself stuck considering all the possibilities, simulating different outcomes in my head, trying to optimize the results. This can make it hard to focus on a solution and move forward. It would help me a lot if you could think of a way to make this a bit easier for me. Thank you

Challange 3 - Prosopagnosia

Hello, my name is Doris, I’m a Future Talent Specialist at Computer Center. My job is a very fun one. I'm very lucky to bring young talent into the organization. I create natural talent pipelines by going into schools, colleges, and universities, and meeting young students, identifying very promising talent, and helping them by introducing them to our apprenticeships, industrial placement, or graduate programs. We also do a lot of community work and outreach work - that's a wonderful part of my job, which fulfils me very much. As part of this work, I can help other young people to identify their career options and life skills. What I'm most proud of is our volunteer program, which I created for Computer Center. It is called Rocket Launchers and since the program started in 2018, I have managed to attract over 530 volunteers who have high passion for young people and would like to dedicate five hours a month to them. As part of the program, young people can meet volunteers from very different walks of life, different careers and talk to them. They can advise them on different careers, maybe get work experience or some other really helpful, useful mentoring tips. We have changed so many young lives so far thanks to the dedication and passion of the volunteers. A lot of change has happened in front of my eyes and I'm really pleased about this.

 I personally have a bit of a challenge, I suffer from a condition called Prosopagnosia. It's facial blindness and I was only diagnosed as an adult. In the business world it is extremely confusing, I go into the business world and have no idea if I have met the people or not. Of course, I can say this is because I usually meet lots of people, but when we look over different situations it becomes more clear. When I was a child, I mistook people easily for each another. I can’t take in faces properly, especially male faces it’s really challenging. Women are easier for me to identify, probably because they have more hair or distinguishing features. When I meet somebody new, I have to really look at their face very carefully. I must remember certain things like how they move or their bodyweight or even their eye colour. I have to really studying somebody and meet them at least two or three times before I can actually remember the facial features properly and even then, it’s not always the case that I'm getting it right. When meeting people in a crowd, it’s much more difficult for me. As a result, I suffer from social anxiety involved when I go outside. I hope one day technology might help me with a facial recognition app, which could help me to identify faces quicker and avoid lots of very embarrassing situations for me. Thank you.

Challange 4 - ADHD

Good afternoon, my name is Morella. I'm a District Sales Manager within AstraZeneca in the DC Metro area. I've worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 27 years with 20 of those years as a sales leader, my key responsibilities are to work with our brand and marketing teams to deliver lifesaving medications to our primary care doctors in the DC Metro area, in the areas of diabetes and hereditary diseases. I have ten primary care reps who I coach and develop for them to be able to deliver very accurate and up-to-date clinical information. This allows them to work with medical professionals, providing educational programs and resources to their physicians to treat patients. I am a person who's been living with ADHD and a working memory issue. Since I can remember, this means that my mind and my body always feel like they're on the go. When you think about it, it's almost as if you have a radio station that's playing in the background, always scanning. Information is constantly swirling around in my head which makes it very difficult to focus and concentrate. When you add a working memory deficit on top of that, it makes things more complicated. As I get information, I can't maintain more than a few pieces of information at one time without losing track of where I'm at. What this means is that often, I have difficultly taking in detail that's provided to me all in one go. I also have challenges retrieving information on demand. It’s very embarrassing and it's frustrating because I know that my tactical knowledge is very deep in an area but, when I try and communicate that explicitly, it can be challenging. I welcome any ideas you may have on strategies, tools, or approaches that can help me to manage this better. Thank you. 

Challange 5 - Dyslexia

Hi guys, my name is Rob. I am a Project and Change manager in the UK. I also part of the neurodiversity group at AstraZeneca. My challenge for you is I really struggle with reading documents and staying focused when I have to read. Can you guys create something for me that will keep me engaged? It would be great if you could turn important reading from something very long and wordy into something visual and engaging so I can get the subject and the information I need from that text quickly. I want to make sure that when I need to know something important, I can process the information clearly or stay engaged with information from a long document also. Good luck and thank you!

Challange 6 - Dyscalculia

I'm Sarah, Senior Pharmaceutical Sales Specialist at AstraZeneca. Much of my job and field sales is to drive from clinic to clinic, engage in conversations with physicians and other healthcare professionals and uncover the unmet needs of their patients. Then invoke AstraZeneca products as a solution to the need, to help those patients. In fact, I am in my car right now parked in front of a clinic! For example, I sell Symbicort, which is an inhaler for patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. I talk to providers about the medication, it’s efficacy, safety profile, discuss studies and manage market access updates. The other aspect of my job in pharmaceutical sales is as a business analytics. I must drive sales performance and sales forecasts – this requires a great deal of analysing sales numbers, setting market shares of individual prescribers and monitoring the changes in the market. I use analytical tools to develop specific strategy to reach sales goals. I love my job it’s exciting, it’s fast-paced, competitive, and I'm quite good at it. I have won quite a few sales awards, even the Circle of Excellence Award. However, I also have Dyscalculia, which can sometimes make this job challenging, especially when it comes to business analytics and numbers. Simply put, Dyscalculia is a specific learning disability that affects a person's ability to acquire skills in arithmetic. It's often called Math Dyslexia - although it's quite different from dyslexia. Severity of symptoms vary from person to person, for me, personally, I can do higher level math, algebra, equations, statistical analysis, et cetera. I can do that just fine. It's a mental math that’s difficult, like addition and subtraction in my head. I don't know my times tables and I use my fingers to count. Although I can hide that quite well, it can be embarrassing. The way I describe it, individual numbers hold no place in my mind at all. For example, I only know two phone numbers by heart, which has been the same phone number for 14 years - my husband's! It takes a great deal of effort to memorize numbers and keep them in my head for instant recall. In fact, it's rarely ever. Especially on a bad day, under any type of pressure or stress, you could ask me something like my zip code and I'll be unable to recall it.

In sales we use a lot of numbers - everywhere - we classify target prescribers based on their potential and give them desktop deciles 1 through 10. When we speak, we have to recall those deciles. I can analyse numbers and come up with strategies, but unless those numbers are readily available in front of me, I can't recall them. I use a lot of sticky notes everywhere to help me remind me of certain numbers that I must remember for that day - for a specific presentation or her conversation with my manager, but my sticky note system doesn't always work. Anything you could do to help would be wonderful.

Challange 7 - Autism

Hi, I'm Tim. I work for Google in the Global Learning Department and that's not the only thing that I've ever accomplished in my life. When I started out, I was in the bike business sweeping floors, I worked my way up until I was on the National Sales Teams working in International Supply and Distribution. That is not the only thing I've done. When I was younger, I started my own manufacturing company with no background in manufacturing, ran that for 10 years and created products and designs that I sold around the world. I’ve had quite a few successes in my life! I attribute it to the superpowers and super strength autism has given me. I just wanted to give you a little example, I'm one of those faces of autism that you may not recognize because a lot of people think that being successful and being autistic don’t go together. But the reality is, it really does. Even though I'm autistic and successful, that doesn't mean that I haven't had some challenges along the way. One of the biggest challenges that I run into all the time is when people ask or tell me something and it's a unitless thing. What I mean by that is when you are told “this is urgent!” or “is this right?” or “we need extensive documentation. It's a unitless word and I have really no idea what that really means. It's almost as if in my brain I've got a scale and they haven't made a mark on the scale - they've just said, “Go! Do something!” If there was a way to solve this challenge, it would make my life a whole lot easier. I'm sure those people that I interact with are probably driven crazy by me asking lots of questions, trying to understand so we can make it work!