LifeHack, a hackathon hosted by the One in Nine Association and recently held at the offices of Arnon, Tadmor-Levy, brought together independent women entrepreneurs and leading technology companies to develop innovative solutions to raise awareness of early detection of breast cancer. About 100 ideas were submitted, of which 12 initiatives were selected to participate in the hackathon. The event focused on creating messages that integrate into everyday life, amid concerns that women’s attention to the issue is declining, in part due to the war and prolonged strain.
“The Israeli reality requires us to abandon old tools and shift to innovative thinking in order to break through the ‘wall of noise’ and connect the critical message directly to every woman’s screen,” said Tali Rosin, CEO of One in Nine, an Israeli nonprofit that supports women with breast cancer. Three ideas won prizes across the hackathon’s three tracks.
The first-place winner was a dedicated feature in the Waze navigation app, which would include light, awareness-raising messages at the start and end of navigation, along with links to a risk assessment questionnaire and the association’s website. The insight behind the idea is that women are overloaded in daily life, making it important to use “on-the-go” moments for reminders. Waze said it would work to implement the feature in Israel and is also considering expanding it to other countries.
The second track winner was the initiative “Beauty in Health,” which aims to turn beauty salons, hairdressers and cosmeticians into active partners in saving lives. The concept includes integrating a scannable barcode during treatments and training professionals as ambassadors to convey life-saving messages, based on the understanding that these are routine meeting points for women.
The third winner was the Histadrut initiative “Incentive for Life,” a reward model based on positive, measurable, real-time incentives that encourages female employees to undergo early screening tests. Under the model, an employee who presents confirmation of completing a screening receives a gift voucher, with the goal of fostering positive internal workplace dialogue around health and preventing illness.
“The power of the hackathon lies in its ability to open the door and bring women and men from the field to the table, channeling diverse voices into practical action, so that each idea is built from the outset to survive the ‘day after’ and enable One in Nine to create real change,” said Dvir Tzanua, CEO and partner at BLEE.
Additional initiatives received partnerships with major technology companies. Monday.com adopted RemindHer, a dedicated task board for screening reminders. “The idea is to create templates tailored to women by age or risk group, which would be embedded in Monday calendars and automatically remind users of routine screenings,” said Daria Jona of Monday.com.
The Nanit baby monitor app, which operates in Israel and abroad with more than 1 million users, also joined with an idea to deliver life-saving messages to new mothers. “Since we know when a child was born, we can tell a mother when it is time to have a breast exam or complete a risk assessment questionnaire,” said Tzofit Degani, who chose to participate in the hackathon after early detection saved her sister’s life and because she herself is in a higher-risk group for breast cancer.
WhatsApp joined the initiatives with an idea proposed by two young women to use an AI bot as a reminder to schedule annual screening appointments. “At 25, my mother pushed me to get a BRCA test. I was tested and everything was fine, then I told a friend and urged her to get tested as well. Thanks to that, she discovered she is a carrier,” said Sigal Kreuttero, one of the initiative’s founders. The idea is based on creating a group of friends in which each woman receives a personal annual reminder to schedule an appointment with a breast surgeon or for a mammogram.
Or Cohen, an electrical and biomedical engineer, initiated the development of the app “My Sister’s Guardian,” a community platform for women designed to provide guidance, make information accessible and strengthen awareness of early breast cancer detection. The app will offer interactive content, tools to understand required tests and their timing, and a user-friendly experience. “As someone who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer, I feel there are not enough platforms that accompany women through the process and make information about the importance of early detection accessible,” Cohen said.
Attorney Shiri Shaham, a partner at Arnon, Tadmor-Levy and a member of the association’s board, concluded: “The joint work of the business sector and the tech community must be at the forefront of advancing awareness. We are proud to host a hackathon that harnesses technology for the most important goal of all: saving lives.”