A Brazilian team won first place at MIT Hacking Medicine Brasil 2026 with a project focused on sexual health in older age. The event, an innovation and entrepreneurship program in healthcare created by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, took place at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo on Saturday and Sunday, October 31 and November 1.
The competition’s main tracks were longevity and oncology. Atlas Health’s proposal aims to make sexual health resources more accessible to older adults by connecting them with educational content, professionals and specialized services. The team also received MIT mentorship to help develop the initiative’s next steps.
Atlas Health brings together professionals and students from different fields: journalist, researcher, psychoanalyst and sexologist Bruna Ramos da Fonte; nurse Thiago Martins; physiotherapist Thalissa Galvanin; multimedia producer Raphaela Rodrigues Silva; medical student Gustavo Andrade Barreto; and engineer and medical student Filiphe Zucchi.
Ramos da Fonte said the idea initially received little interest from other participants, and that she eventually joined a team working on a different proposal. After discussions, the group adopted her idea. She said the experience reflected both the gap in attention to the subject and the persistence of ageism in conversations about sexuality and aging.
Brazil’s 2019 National Health Survey found that 40.76% of people aged 60 or older had had some form of sexual intercourse in the preceding 12 months. Among surveyed older adults who were sexually active, 88.31% had not used condoms.
Ramos da Fonte told CNN Brasil that the figures point to possible exposure to sexually transmitted infections, while limited information, support and access to specialized services may affect sexual and mental health and quality of life, particularly for vulnerable groups.
Sources: CNN Brasil.