Nearly 150 students from 24 universities across the United States and three foreign countries will gather at Emory University Saturday, March 23 to compete in the sixth Emory Global Health Case Competition. Teams will include undergraduate, graduate and professional school students from multiple academic disciplines. The 24 student teams will spend an intensive weekend in both a competitive and collaborative environment developing innovative solutions for a critical global health challenge.
"Although the Emory Global Health Case Competition uses a similar format to a business school case competition, it is unique in requiring students to work in multidisciplinary teams to analyze a real-world global health challenge requiring an interdisciplinary approach," says Jeffrey Koplan, MD, MPH, Emory vice president for global health and the founding director of the Emory Global Health Institute. "This competition, as the leading global health team event, is an outstanding demonstration of the creativity, energy and passion students bring to their global health education."
In addition to Emory, participating schools include Boston University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Instituto Technológico Autónomo de México, Johns Hopkins University, National University of Singapore, Northwestern University, Princeton University, State University of New York, Tulane University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of California at San Francisco, University of Miami, University of Pennsylvania, University of Southern California, University of Toronto, University of Virginia, U.S. Naval Academy, Vanderbilt University, Yale University, and Yeshiva University.
The multidisciplinary competition, developed and coordinated by the Emory Global Health Institute and its Student Advisory Committee, includes graduate and undergraduate students from numerous fields including agricultural and life sciences, business, engineering, law, medicine, nursing, public health, theology, the social sciences and the humanities. A multidisciplinary external panel of judges will evaluate this year's competition.
Previous years' case competition teams were charged with reducing severe childhood malnutrition in Ethiopia, childhood obesity in Mexico, and tobacco health burdens in Gujarat, India, developing program priorities for a refugee health agency in three east African countries, addressing social and health disparities in Sri Lanka, and developing health reform plans for the France's Union for a Popular Movement political party.
This year's signature sponsor is GE, with additional external sponsorship from Danya International, John Snow, Inc., the Pendleton Group, and the Red Brick Brewing Company.
More information about the student case competition: http://www.globalhealth.emory.edu/programs/globaldevandhealthweek/globalhealthcasecompetitionindex.php