Australian startup ThinkMD has taken out the US$200,000 grand prize at the inaugural Future Health Challenge, recognised for its mobile clinical decision-support tools that equip frontline health workers in low-resource settings with earlier detection capabilities.
The awards, totalling US$300,000 across three teams, were presented on the sidelines of the 79th World Health Assembly in Geneva. The challenge was delivered by Future Health, a global initiative by Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with MIT Solve.
Five finalist teams were selected from 393 submissions across 68 countries, competing under the theme of building anticipatory health systems through population sensing.
ThinkMD’s frontline detection platform
ThinkMD’s platform provides frontline health workers with mobile tools that improve triage, treatment and referral decisions, while turning routine care encounters into real-time population health signals. The platform is used by more than 9,000 frontline workers across 885 facilities.
The system’s capacity to function as an early warning tool was demonstrated when it detected symptom patterns preceding a cholera outbreak in Zambia.
Dr. Jackie Rabec, Co-Founder of ThinkMD, outlined plans for the prize funding.
“We are thrilled to be the recipients of this award and we are excited to be able to use it to scale our impact,” Rabec explained. “Our next stage of growth will be expanding in priority markets across Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda and Somalia, validating our next generation multimodal conversational interface and furthering our self-care product to deliver health intelligence into the hands of citizens.”
Runner-up awards
Two distinguished finalist prizes of US$50,000 each were awarded to Vector Control Innovations from the United States and Huna from Brazil.
Vector Control Innovations developed VectorCam, an AI-enabled mosquito surveillance tool designed to detect changing vector risks earlier, helping health systems target interventions before outbreaks escalate. Field evaluations showed data completeness increasing from around 60 per cent to over 90 per cent.
Huna applies AI to routine blood test data to identify people at elevated cancer risk earlier and guide them into appropriate screening and care pathways. In Brazil, its pilots have screened more than 500,000 patients, with hundreds of cancer cases detected that would likely have been found later when treatment is more complex and costly.
Shifting from treatment to early intervention
Dr. Asma Al Mannaei, Executive Director of the Health and Life Sciences Sector at the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, framed the challenge as addressing a systemic gap in how health systems identify risk.
“Too often, health systems only detect risk once it has become illness, when treatment is more complex and outcomes are worse,” Al Mannaei observed. “Solutions from the Future Health Challenge are designed to identify risk earlier and support more timely decisions at a population level. The priority now is testing and scaling what works in real-world settings.”
Hala Hanna, Executive Director of MIT Solve, pointed to the scale of the opportunity.
“The solutions emerging from this Challenge reflect both the urgency and the opportunity facing health systems globally,” Hanna remarked. “By bringing innovators together with policymakers, funders and implementers through platforms such as Future Health, we can help accelerate solutions that are locally grounded and capable of delivering impact at scale.”
MIT Solve has mobilised over US$80 million in funding for innovators worldwide to date, with supported solutions reaching more than 370 million lives.
Next steps
Beyond the prize funding, participating teams will be connected to partners, investors and health authorities to support development and adoption. Representatives from finalist, semi-finalist and selected honourable mention teams will be invited to showcase their innovations at the Abu Dhabi Future Health Summit, scheduled for 20 to 22 October 2026.
Further information is available at www.futurehealthinitiative.ae.
Last Updated on May 22, 2026 by Nick Ross
