Milbank Supports UK’s First Sporting Hakathon

Milbank LLP is delighted to have partnered with Love of the Game (LOTG) for the UK’s first virtual sporting Hakathon - to develop actionable solutions to one of the greatest problems facing modern games, the early-onset of dementia caused by head injuries. The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation served as Presenting Sponsor, supported by the UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and its Minister for Sport and Tourism Nigel Huddleston, and by Milbank LLP partner James Cameron.

The virtual Hakathon, organised by Hacking Health UK, brought together industry experts from across the design, developer and engineering industries as well as amateur and professional sporting individuals, academics and researchers with a view to create solutions to diagnose, grade and treat the effects of head injuries and concussion within sports.

Partner James Cameron, who is a founding member of Love of the Game and acted as a mentor to the group, said: “We are passionate supporters of Love of the Game and delighted to have been a part of this important initiative. It is imperative that we continue to understand and mitigate brain injury to find solutions to challenges that will benefit our society and future generations.”

Eight teams and over 60 participants, supported by 24 expert mentors, spent two days devising a preventative diagnostic tool for children engaged in higher risk sports and developing solutions to address problems ranging from improvement in brain health and the prevention of concussion within certain sports. Participants and judges joined from University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Imperial College London, Bath Rugby Club and QBE Insurance Group Ltd. The event was opened by LOTG’s President and former England rugby union player, Simon Shaw. The judging panel included dementia campaigner and LOTG Chairman Laurence Geller; Global Creative Talent and Network Director, Pentland Brands, Katie Greenyer; Sunday Times Chief Sports Correspondent, David Walsh; Rugby World Cup winner and former England player Mike Tindall MBE; and tech entrepreneur, Lisa Winning.

Love of the Game Chairman, Laurence Geller said: “We are so proud of what Love of the Game and the Hakathon’s participants have achieved. As a solutions-orientated organisation, the Hakathon is a testament to what can be achieved when experts across health, sport, science, business and technology come together with a key aim in mind. However, this is just the beginning. We now need to ensure that these exceptional ideas are taken forward, given the appropriate financial and development backing, and brought to fruition. It is in all of our hands to facilitate meaningful change to protect players now, without jeopardising the sports we love.”

Teams drew inspiration from across a variety of sports, including BMX, cheerleading, football, skateboarding and rugby, to develop concepts and ideas including smart stretchers and oxygen chambers, protective head gear with in-built sensors and apps with the ability to help prevent, diagnose and treat head injuries before, during and after incidents. The following teams were awarded winners by the judges:

• Best Prevention Solution: Appy Brain - a mobile app for female athletes to provide ongoing education related to concussion while allowing coaches to monitor any symptoms of concussion and concussion recovery
• Best Diagnosis and/or grading solution winners: SIRIUS stretchers - a smart stretcher for rapid on-field diagnosis and treatment
• Best solution focused on young people in sport: Helm@ - a sensor-based data collection tool for teenagers to help them learn how to skateboard
• Best Treatment Solution: HBOT - a large objective-blinded study to assess whether Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can act as an intervention to improve and speed up recover from a concussive event in sports
• Best solution for women / People’s Choice: FIERCE - a comfortable wearing smart headband that aims to improve athletes head health and protect against concussions.

UK Government’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and its Minister for Sport and Tourism Nigel Huddleston, concluded: "This ground-breaking Hakathon is a wonderfully creative innovation aimed at finding solutions to prevent, diagnose and treat head injuries and concussion across all levels of sport. The Government recognises the importance of this issue and we continue to work with sports bodies to build on the positive work that is already taking place on concussions in sport. The Hakathon is a fantastic example of creative tech-innovators collaborating to make sport safer for players and I look forward to receiving the results of their good work."