Congratulations Global Health Case Competition Winners
Team 4 was the winning team in this year's Case Competition. From left to right: Devna Panda, Marie Ronnander, Ishika Jain, Khidhr Kotaria, and Lily Curlin
The Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility successfully held our twelfth annual Global Health Case Competition January 22 – February 1, which included over 50 student participants from 11 University of Minnesota schools or colleges.
Out of the 9 teams that ultimately participated in the competition, only one could come out in first place, winning the chance to participate in Emory University's international Global Health Case Competition as well as a cash prize.
This year's winning team was team 4, which was a team made up entirely of undergraduate student participants. Team members were Lily Curlin (College of Liberal Arts), Ishika Jain (College of Science and Engineering), Khidhr Kotaria (College of Science and Engineering), Devna Panda (College of Science and Engineering), and Marie Ronnander (College of Biological Sciences). The team was coached by Tami Alpaugh, PhD, assistant professor of Medical Laboratory Sciences in the College of Pharmacy.
The second place team also receives a prize. This year's second place team was team 2, which included Jasmine Adam (School of Public Health), Annie Griebie (Medical School), Nicole Ivanova (College of Dentistry), Sophia Park (Medical School), Zaynab Somani (Medical School), and Amal Suri (Medical School). Their coach was Mateo Frumholtz, MPH.
The case scenario for this year’s competition centered on smog and air pollution among agricultural communities in northern Thailand. CGHSR partnered with faculty members from Chiang Mai University's Research Institute for Health Sciences to develop the case base on existing research they are conducting on the impacts of PM 2.5 in the region.
Teams were required to analyze the real-life situation of PM 2.5 air pollution — small hazardous particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter that spread in the atmosphere — and develop a health action plan with goals addressing environmental health disparities in Thai rural agricultural communities. Student teams were required to consider sustainability, community involvement, and a monitoring and evaluation plan, all while staying under a budget of $6 million.
"Quite often, higher education has been accused of being too insular from actual happenings in the world. One of the beauties of the Case Competition is that it tries to replicate real world situations when you'll be working across disciplines, across sectors, and across countries," said Shailey Prasad, MD, MPH, executive director of CGHSR. "So in many ways, this is probably the best pedagogical model of application of the knowledge we all learn in our own individual disciplines."
This year's judges also brought expert voices from the real-world work of global women's health into the simulated competition environment. The final round of the competition was judged by Bruce Alexander, PhD, professor and division head of the UMN School of Public Health’s Division of Environmental Health Sciences; Irina Stepanov, PhD, Mayo professor in the Division of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health; and Angelica Walton, DNP, cinical assistant professor at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. The first round judges panel was made up of a multidisciplinary group of health experts from the UMN and beyond.
We congratulate all teams on their incredible work and dedication to this competition, especially for making the second year of a virtual competition such a resounding success. The center also extends a special thank-you to the group of coaches who volunteered their time and energy to work with the teams during competition week.