From Hackathons to Federated AI: New Ways of Uniting Knowledge for Rare Diseases

From Hackathons to Federated AI: New Ways of Uniting Knowledge for Rare Diseases.

We were inspired by our partner Dr. Maja Stojiljkovic Stojiljkovic, who shared the story of the Undiagnosed Hackathon — an innovative format where scientists from diverse disciplines and countries join forces to help patients affected by rare and undiagnosed diseases.

Within the BRIDGING-RD Project, this collaborative model has shown how cooperation and shared intelligence can accelerate diagnosis and discovery. At Better AI Health, we share the same vision — but bring it to the next level through federated learning.

By connecting hospitals, research centers, and biobanks across Europe, BETTER enables AI models to learn from distributed health data without moving it — protecting privacy while amplifying knowledge.

The spirit is the same: many minds, one goal — improving patients’ lives through smarter, more connected science.

Together, initiatives like BRIDGING-RD and BETTER show that the future of medical innovation lies in collaboration without borders.