Zimbabwe’s largest medical aid society has opened its annual digital health innovation competition, offering cash prizes and the chance to pilot winning technologies within its national healthcare network.
Cimas Health Group launched Healthathon 3.0 at its Borrowdale Office Park in Harare this week, inviting startups, university technology teams, innovation hubs and independent developers to compete under the theme “Transforming Healthcare with Disruptive Innovation.”
Registration opens on 22 June and closes on 12 July, with a grand finale set for 28 August 2026.
The top prize is US$3,500, with second and third-placed teams receiving US$2,000 and US$1,500 respectively. Beyond prize money, finalists stand to have their solutions integrated into Cimas’s broader healthcare operations.
Unlike previous editions, which set defined focus categories, this year’s competition presents a single open-ended challenge — a deliberate move by organisers to widen the scope of ideas and encourage participants to approach healthcare problems from any angle.
Cimas Chief Executive Vuli Ndlovu said the competition was more than a contest.
“It is a journey of creativity, collaboration and innovation that brings together the country’s brightest minds to develop bold and technologically advanced solutions to some of the most pressing healthcare challenges affecting our communities today,” he said.
Chief Information Officer Foster Akaketwa said teams of between three and five members would be required to build a working prototype within the competition timeline, with solutions expected to address real, locally relevant healthcare problems.
“Teams are allowed to choose their own problem area, but must show why the problem is material, who it affects, and why their solution is viable,” Akaketwa said.
The top 20 applications will be shortlisted from the initial pool, before being narrowed to six finalists who will present prototypes to a panel of judges on Demo Day. Submitted solutions must be original and cannot replicate existing platforms without significant adaptation.
Shortlisted teams will attend an orientation session covering prototype development expectations, intellectual property rights and data protection requirements ahead of the finals.
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