This has been a strong year for Health Policy Management students and case competitions.
In February, four Master of Health Administration students competed in the 18th Annual University of Alabama at Birmingham Health Administration Case Competition, where they competed against 40 other top MHA programs from across the country. Keagan Goldwait, Caroline Kennedy, Jennie Lipshy, and Cece Enright, with oversight from the MHA Program Director Dave Washburn, made the semi-finals – outstanding for a team of all first year students. The team presented innovative solutions for transforming behavioral health at St. Louis Children's Hospital and were evaluated by panels of industry experts.
Just two months later, another team consisting of Crystal Dickerson (MPH), Sriti Donthi (MD/MPH), Holly Larson (MHA), and Helina Shiferaw (MPH) placed third overall in the Clarion Case Competition in Minneapolis, earning a total of $2,500 in prize money. Crystal as singled out as the best presenter among the group of schools faced during the first round.
And this past October, a team consisting of Kenneth Benson, Lajmi Islam, and Sophia Steddin achieved second place in the Sixth Annual Penn State Health Policy and Administration Case Competition. They did an outstanding job developing and presenting innovative, actionable solutions to reduce nursing turnover at Hershey Medical Center.
2024 Tulane University Health Policy Case Competition
The department also hosted its fifth annual Health Policy Case Competition (TUHPCC) this year. The TUHPCC prompts teams of three undergraduate students to create policy-based solutions to a given real-world problem. Practitioners in the field then judge the merits of the proposal. The 2024 prompt asked students to apply the lens of health policy analysis to the crisis of injuries in New Orleans. New Orleans is in one of the lowest-ranked counties for years of life lost to injury according to county health rankings. A total of 167 students from 27 schools entered the competition.
Finalists included a team from Vanderbilt with a proposal for diverting cases into drug courts to reduce substance use disorder-related deaths, a team from the University of Texas at Austin with a proposal for requiring additional vision and acuity testing for older drivers to reduce automobile accidents, and a team from the University of Virginia with a proposal to mandate latches on swimming pools and water education to mitigate child drowning. Congratulations to the team of Jaiden Murray and Jenna Trent for winning the competition! Learn more at: https://sph.tulane.edu/tuhpcc
