You’ll Never Guess Which Company Is Helping Create An App To Fight Leukemia (Hint: It’s A Bank)

Banking: It’s the oldest industry in the modern world—but it’s also the one that’s been transformed the most by technology.

You can attribute this evolution to the rise of Financial Technology (FinTech). It’s one of the economy’s fastest-growing sectors, and it has turned the smartest banks into tech powerhouses.

However, not all banks deploy their tech prowess in the same way. Take Deutsche Bank, which continuously looks for driven and passionate people to join their team. Here’s a look at some of the innovative, impactful work Deutsche Bank’s Tech Team has created.

The DB + Cure Leukaemia Foundation Hackathon

Hackathons are a regular part of a technical team’s development. Why? They’re a great way to get a working prototype of a product off the ground.

Except this time, it wasn’t about making a banking product. It was about improving the lives of leukemia patients.

Deutsche Bank’s chosen method? Devising an app that could connect patients with the Cure Leukaemia Foundation, a charity based in the United Kingdom. They provide resources on everything from self-esteem and mental health support to information on different treatments and diets for patients undergoing treatment. (If you’re curious about the different spellings, it’s because leukemia is spelled “leukaemia” in British English.)

Deutsche Bank is a global company, so they had technical teams from around the world competing to code the best app in only a day’s time. Squads of tech whizzes from Germany, Romania, the UK, Russia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US worked around-the-clock to create an app built off Deutsche Bank’s dev platform, Fabric.

The final product? An app that could truly change the way people with leukemia live with and respond to the disease.

The winning team was “She Hacks,” who represented Deutsche Bank’s London tech group. The all-female coding team built Sanguine, an app that connects patients based on their symptoms and individual diagnosis to help them cope and stay strong during the treatment process.  This approach helped solve one of the daunting obstacles leukemia patients face: They struggle to find the kind of information that can help them feel “normal” and confident during treatment.

Sanguine uses factors like gender, diagnosis, age, and more to connect patients and demystify the treatment and recovery process. It curates articles and advice from trusted sources in the Cure Leukaemia network, and it also collects their well-being data, which they can choose to share with doctors, family, and friends.

From Charitable To Cutting Edge: Tech At Deutsche Bank

Technologists at Deutsche Bank also make some of the most cutting-edge solutions in FinTech. The bank has a centralized tech advancement center in its native Germany, called The Digital Factory. It serves as a hub for Deutsche Bank’s global tech projects.

Some of these incredible initiatives include a digital currency exchange platform, a mobile payment system, and a multi-banking online hub for clients with complex accounts. Yet another one is the Deutsche Bank Digital Safe (also known as eSafe), which is a highly secure digital platform for sensitive documents, information, passwords, and more. The variety of projects Deutsche Bank technologists work on means they seek experts and rising talent from all types of specialties and backgrounds – making it an excellent place for interns and recent grads to learn more about a certain skill set.

No matter what the project is, though, Deutsche Bank is looking for technologists who create and think with passion. Whether your app changes the way leukemia patients connect with a support network or the way investors access their projected data, the enthusiasm for entrepreneurial thinking and desire to work on outcome-oriented projects remains the same.

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a Deutsche Bank techy? Check out fun facts, videos and amazing job opportunities from Deutsche Bank on WayUp today!