
It started off a bit awkwardly; the hackathon where students from ROC Mondriaan, Inholland, and TU Delft had to solve healthcare problems together in one morning. -I could have spent this time playing FIFA instead,- someone muttered from the right corner of the classroom, where the vocational students had gathered. The university and applied sciences students were also sitting in their own respective corners of the room. Yet, the hackathon turned out to be a success. Once the teams were formed, enthusiasm quickly took off. Before introductions were even fully exchanged, the first problems and solutions were already written down. This method works.
The goal of the hackathon was collaboration, sharing experiences, and coming up with solutions for healthcare challenges that vocational students had encountered during their internships. For instance, bandaging the legs of elderly patients-a physically demanding task that takes up time and causes back problems for many workers. Or cleaning dentures, which dementia patients sometimes refuse to take out. According to Ad Blom, practor of technology in healthcare and welfare at ROC Mondriaan, exchanging practical and technological knowledge is crucial for the future. -If young people learn to collaborate and value each other now, it will be easier for them to connect and solve problems in the future.-
Dentures Spark Discussion
Seven problems were presented during the initial pitches. Eventually, each team chose one problem to tackle, groups were formed, and the brainstorming began. Habib, a second-year care student, shared his experience of being bitten multiple times by dementia patients who resisted help with their dentures. The group proposed a denture-cleaning machine. While such machines already exist, they are rarely used. This sparked discussions. Can dementia patients still learn new habits? How can we make the cleaning device user-friendly? And what additional features should it have?
Practical Experience is Key to Innovation

These are questions PhD candidate Anton had never considered. He studied medicine in Leiden and is now researching labor-saving technologies for operating rooms at TU Delft. -Elderly dementia patients aren-t really my area of expertise. It’s fascinating to hear how much effort it takes to care for them properly. Each patient has unique needs and preferences. There are so many nuances you can’t possibly predict from theory alone. You really need practical experience for that.-
Eliana has that practical experience from her internship at a care home in The Hague. She admitted she wasn’t excited about the event at first. -At the beginning, the topic didn’t seem that important to me, but the more we talked about it, the more interesting it became. I realized I personally care about having clean, nice teeth, and it’s the same for elderly people. The device we designed can tell if the dentures still fit properly, whether they are clean, how long someone has been wearing them, and-importantly-their location, because dentures often get lost.-
This Style of Education Leaves Everyone Wanting More
In the end, the team named their product Tandenfee (-Tooth Fairy-), an innovative denture cleaner built into the bathroom wall. Users simply place their dentures in a compartment, where the machine cleans and inspects them. For those who forget, the device provides an automatic voice reminder that can be recorded by a loved one or family member: -Good morning, Mom, don’t forget to put your dentures in the slot.- Losing dentures is also addressed-each denture is equipped with a chip, allowing caregivers to locate it through an app, as Habib explained.
Professor Maarten van der Elst, affiliated with TU Delft and the Reinier de Graaf Hospital in Delft, praised the hackathon and the collaboration between practice and theory. -I see potential to further develop the denture cleaner. But the idea of an automatic bandager is also something we could really use in practice.- Ad Blom was equally enthusiastic about the hackathon. -I’m pleasantly surprised by how people engaged with one another. The level of innovation exceeded expectations, and this style of education definitely leaves us wanting more.-
A Fantastic Experience

In the end, Tandenfee won this first edition of the hackathon. The jury, consisting of professors and teachers, commended its originality. The prize was a voucher for free pizza, which Eliana gladly accepted: -I’m happy I don’t have to cook tonight.- Even Giovanni, the boy who would have preferred playing FIFA in the morning, was pleased with his prize. He retracted his earlier statement: -This was a fantastic experience. I-d do it again in a heartbeat.-
The hackathon was organized through a collaboration between ROC Mondriaan, Inholland University of Applied Sciences, TU Delft, the Reinier de Graaf Hospital, and Pieter van Foreest.