Projects
We work on healthcare design projects that move from early ideas toward prototypes, testing, and long-term impact.
Explore projectsAbout FISH
Frugal innovation for more sustainable healthcare.
FISH is a student-led organization building thoughtful, accessible, and human-centered healthcare solutions through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Who We Are
Student-led, interdisciplinary, and impact-driven.
Frugal Innovations in Sustainable Healthcare is a student-led organization that brings together students from engineering, medicine, business, public policy, design, and other disciplines to work on meaningful healthcare challenges.
We believe the best ideas come from collaboration across backgrounds and from designing with real constraints in mind. Our goal is to create a space where students can learn, build, and contribute to more accessible and sustainable healthcare innovation.
Student-led
Built by students who take initiative in design, prototyping, and outreach.
Interdisciplinary
Different backgrounds working together around the same healthcare problems.
Collaborative
A community where students learn from one another and build together.
Purposeful
Focused on solutions that can make a real difference beyond the prototype stage.
What We Do
Hands-on opportunities to learn, build, and collaborate.
FISH creates experiences that connect student curiosity with real healthcare needs.
Events
Through workshops, speakers, and build sessions, we create spaces for learning, experimentation, and community.
See eventsCompetitions / Partnerships
We pursue opportunities to collaborate with others and grow our impact through competitions, partnerships, and shared initiatives.
Learn moreMake-A-Thon
Our Make-A-Thon brings students together to solve healthcare challenges through rapid prototyping, teamwork, and creative problem-solving.
View Make-A-ThonOur Approach
Frugality, sustainability, and real-world impact guide everything we build.
We believe innovation should be practical, resource-aware, and grounded in the realities of healthcare systems and the people they serve.
That means designing with constraints in mind, thinking beyond short-term prototypes, and prioritizing solutions that are implementable, adaptable, and meaningful.
Frugality
We focus on thoughtful solutions that do more with less and avoid unnecessary complexity.
Sustainability
We consider long-term viability, responsible design choices, and systems that can endure.
Real-world impact
We aim to respond to actual needs with ideas that can improve access, experiences, and outcomes.
Meet the Team
The students shaping FISH.
Meet the officers and student leaders behind our projects, events, collaborations, and future direction.
Our Story / Timeline
How FISH started and where it’s headed.
The beginning
A shared idea
FISH started with the belief that healthcare innovation should be more accessible, collaborative, and grounded in real-world constraints.
The present
A growing student community
Today, FISH supports hands-on projects, events, and partnerships that help students learn by doing and collaborate across disciplines.
The future
Deeper impact
We are continuing to expand our reach through stronger project pipelines, broader collaboration, and more opportunities for students to build with purpose.
The Founders
The students who helped start FISH.
FISH was founded this year by students who saw an opportunity to create a space for interdisciplinary, sustainable, and impact-driven healthcare innovation at UVA.
What began as an idea has quickly grown into a community centered on collaboration, creativity, and building solutions that respond to real healthcare challenges. As a new organization, our founders helped shape not only our mission, but also the kind of community we hope FISH will continue to become.
Get Involved
Join, collaborate, or reach out.
Whether you want to join FISH, partner with us, or start a conversation about an idea, we’d love to hear from you.
