Executive Director Pennie Beauchamp Serves as Judge in UTD’s Interdisciplinary Global Health Case Competition — Read Full Article

UTD teams tackle global health issues for a second year

After competing to improve Japan’s healthcare infrastructure for the elderly, the winning team advanced to Emory’s University’s international competition

UTD’s interdisciplinary Global Health Case Competition completed its second annual competition Oct. 20, amassing over​​ 250 competitors in a set of 50 teams at UTD. Tasked with creating a multifaceted solution to Japan’s elderly health crisis in a week, the top team was selected to advance to Emory University’s international competition.  

Initially created by public policy senior Nandita Kumar and finance junior Avinash Chivakula, the 2024-2025 planning committee expanded to include last year’s winning team to organize the competition’s week of events and coordinate the large volume of competitors. This year’s case challenge was written by the planning committee, tasking competitors to evaluate Japan’s health infrastructure for elderly citizens and create plans to manage chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, dementia and diabetes.

Competitors could create their teams in one of two ways: choosing their own, with the requirement that three out of five team members had different majors, or submitting an application and letting the planning committee sort them into a team. After the case challenge was released, competitors were given a week to prepare their plan, with a preliminary round on Wednesday, Oct. 16, that selected the top 10 teams. The finalist round on Sunday involved a series of presentations to judges and a top four round to determine the winning order.

The winning team — comprised of neuroscience juniors Alekya Tanikella and Aiswarya Saravanan; biology and healthcare management junior Jyotsna Tera; electrical engineering senior Kevin Sun; neuroscience junior Isha Rojanala; and biology junior Catherine Lee — spent a week compiling research on Japanese healthcare to find a sustainable solution to the elderly health crisis. Members of the team had participated in the competition last year and cited their experience as the reason they were able to streamline their process and create a quality project.

Compared to the previous case challenge — addressing the humanitarian crises faced by the Rohingya, Inuit and Navajo populations — the challenge for this year was left intentionally vague. Addressing the elderly healthcare crisis in Japan, was a policy issue instead of a humanitarian crisis, according to Saravanan, requiring different thinking.

“One of the things that was very helpful for me was really being able to see what goes into any sort of public health initiative,” Saravanan said. “It’s not just coming up with an idea and then putting up flyers and posters, and [everything] all of a sudden happening.”

Teams were judged on the sustainability of their plans. Competitors were given a $5 million budget and a timeline of five years to solve the problem, and teams needed to integrate their solution into local nonprofits and initiatives. The winning team found their solution by promoting local businesses that would maintain a caregiver program once external cashflow dried up and maintaining a telehealth application that provided fast and cheap access to healthcare in a rural setting. Teams were required to support their solutions with proven, real-world case studies or examples.

“One of the big things we were looking at was what existing models have already worked,” Tera said. “For example, with our MediPal app, we talked with the founders of ​​​​the framework app [called PatientPartner] and the business model that occurred in different countries and asked them what worked … so we [made] sure our solution was realistic and rooted in something that actually worked.”

Beyond finding solutions to Japan’s infrastructure issues, the team’s members were inspired by the ways Japan implemented health care, and said they felt inspired to create similar changes in their community. The inspiration from the Global Health Case competition extended to the judges, too.

“It’s so nice to see the fresh ideas and can-do spirit,” Siddharth Kogilwaimath, infectious disease specialist and competition judge, said. “When you’re in this for 20, 30 years, you’re kind of like, ‘It’s the same stuff again and again.’ So it’s very interesting to see the new ideas … and the passion.”

Pennie Beauchamp, one of the judges and the executive director of Mental Health America in Dallas, highlighted the importance of cultural integration in the teams’ case plans.

“I’ve heard a lot of how having someone that comes from their same point of view makes the difference in feeling confident to drop the stigma around speaking out about their mental health disorders,” Beauchamp said. “That’s a huge factor across all parts of medicine, to understand that human beings need that comfort level.”

With only a week to prepare a winning presentation, the competition was intense, but the winning team encouraged students to sign up to compete in next year’s challenge.

“We not only gained incredible friendships, but an amazing experience in getting to learn ideas from a bunch of different people,” said Tera. “It’s so important to have a team, because I don’t think this would be possible [without one.] Having six different voices and people coming in with different ideas really helps.”

Having gained knowledge from the international competition at Emory University earlier this year, the planning committee aims to continue growing the Global Health Case competition at UTD, hoping to expand to UT Southwestern or the broader UT system.

“Not having [gone to the international competition] before, we were truly at a disadvantage because we didn’t understand the format of the competition,” Riya Thomas, neuroscience sophomore and planning committee member, said. “But at the end of the day, we realized we’d rather show some growth and help another group of people to reach that stage again.”

The international competition at Emory involves over 2,000 competitors across 100 universities, which is where the UTD finalist team is headed in March.

“This competition really helped focus for me … how much I want [public health] to be part of my future career,” Tanikella said. “Going to Emory, I’m really excited to see what they have and how people will develop these solutions.”

The article can be found on UTD’s site here.

Surjaditya Sarkar | Retrograde Staff
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