2017 Global Health Case Competition
The Case
The participants of the 2017 Global Health Case Competition were given the task to devise a strategy to reduce maternal mortality rates in Haiti by increasing access to surgical care. In addition to Haiti’s health system, the model had to take into account the nation’s economic, political, cultural, and educational systems. The team solution reflected a consideration of its effects on these areas. The teams worked around a fictitious scenario in which The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation along with The World Health Organization’s Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care, requested for proposals aimed at improving maternal health outcomes by expanding access to safe surgery in Haiti . Proposals had to be designed in order to act as pilot initiatives carried out over a three-year period and with funding for $500,000 USD per year .
Teams worked together for a week to develop proposals that were realistic, effective, and innovative in a five-year timeframe.
Read the full Case Prompt: Improving Maternal Health Outcomes in Haiti by Expanding Access to Safe Surgery
The Winning Team
Colette Abah, Vanderbilt Institute for Surgery and Engineering, PhD Candidate
Sade Arinze, M.D, School of Medicine, MPH candidate (Global Health)
Selorm Dei-Tutu, M.D, School of Medicine, MPH Candidate (Global Health)
Adoma Manful, School of Medicine, MPH Candidate (Global Health)
Miller Morris, Graduate School, MA Candidate (Medicine, Health and Society)
Abimbola Sunmonu, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Neurology Resident
The Winning Presentation
See the Winning presentation here!
See the Runner-up presentation here!
Pictures
Judges
Muktar Aliyu, MD, DrPH – Associate Director for Research, Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health; Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Meharry Medical College
Dr. Aliyu attended medical school at the Ahmadu Bello University in Nigeria and completed graduate training in public health at the George Washington University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He joined Vanderbilt University after completing residency and fellowship training at Meharry Medical College and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. His research interests are in adverse birth outcomes associated with infectious diseases in resource-limited settings. He currently serves as President-elect of the Tennessee College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Mario Avila, MBA – Director, Turner Family Center for Social Ventures, Vanderbilt University.
Mario serves as the founding Director of the Turner Family Center for Social Ventures at Vanderbilt University, a new hub that serves as a resource and thought leader for people across the university interested in combining revenue-generating businesses with social impact objectives. Most recently, he was the CEO of Emerge and founder of Contigo Financial, a socially-responsible consumer lender headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a Fellow of Vanderbilt University’s Cal Turner program for Moral Leadership in the Professions and helped develop a hybrid housing-microfinance model to finance mortgage needs of people at the base of the pyramid in Central America. Mario serves on various boards including Conexion Americas and is Chairman of the Nashville Social Enterprise Alliance. He earned an AB from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Vanderbilt University.
Nicholas Carter, MD – General Surgery Resident, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Through the Frist Global Health Leaders program he spent four weeks working at Kijabe AIC Hospital in Kenya. He previously attended Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and worked for 10 months at a hospital in Haiti. He aspires to a career as a missionary surgeon with a particular interest in Haiti.
Amy Fogleman, RN – Faith Outreach Consultant, Hope through Healing Hands
A native of Central Florida, Amy Fogleman, is a 2002 and 2013 graduate of Nashville’s Belmont University; earning Bachelor degrees in both Business Administration and Science of Nursing. Fogleman’s skill set includes over ten years of artist management and development experience at Creative Trust, Inc. During her time working in the music industry, she was recognized as one of Billboard Magazine's Top 30 Execs Under 30 in 2008. Fogleman has a deep-seated passion in supporting global health and transitioned to the field of nursing in 2013. Fogleman currently works in surgical oncology as a RN, while continuing consulting work in the music industry and for Hope through Healing Hands.
Doug C. Heimburger, MD, MS – Professor of Medicine; Associate Director for Education and Training, Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health; Director, MPH Global Health Track
Dr. Heimburger directs VIGH’s education and training programs for Vanderbilt students and trainees, as well as research training opportunities for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees from other institutions and other countries. His principal research and publication interests are nutritional influences on responses to treatment for HIV/AIDS in developing countries and global health education. He conducts clinical nutrition research in a population of undernourished Zambians who are on antiretroviral therapy for HIV/AIDS.
Rondi Kauffmann, MD, MPH – Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology
Dr. Kauffmann received her undergraduate degree from the University of California in Los Angeles, CA and earned her M.D., M.P.H. degrees from the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, MN. She completed her Residency in General Surgery from at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN in addition to a Fellowship in Complex Surgical Oncology at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, CA. Dr. Kauffmann's research focuses include disparities in cancer care and outcomes, public health interventions targeting early detection of malignancy, international medicine and cancer care. She conducted research on malaria in France and Senegal for her MPH thesis and spent two years doing clinical research with Vanderbilt’s Department of Trauma and spent time teaching and learning in Kijabe, Kenya.
Sophia Kostalenetz, MD – Med-Peds Resident, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Sophia was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and at the age of five moved to the United States where she lived in Missouri, Indiana, Louisiana, and Massachusetts. Through her exposure to diverse cultures and lifestyles while growing up, she discovered a passion for both medicine and global health. This drove her to work with Partners in Health during her undergraduate and graduate years, including most recently a year working in Haiti in quality improvement and operational research.
Alison Lutz, PhD - Department of Religion focusing on Ethics and Society
Ali Lutz is a PhD student in the Department of Religion focusing on Ethics and Society, and a fellow in Theology and Practice. She holds an MDiv from Emory University's Candler School of Theology, an STM from Yale Divinity School, and a BA in French literature from Emory University. Ali's doctoral research explores the ethical assumptions that drive humanitarian aid and service missions, in particular the issues of control and imbalances of power that beset many well-intentioned efforts to relieve global poverty. This project grows out of Ali's public health work in rural Haiti, her experience living in a l’Arche community with adults with disabilities, and her work in refugee resettlement. Ali is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church and has served churches as a lay minister or priest in New York, Haiti, Arizona, and Tennessee.
Jessica McAllister, MHA – Director, Office of Healthcare Transformation, and Associate Director for Strategy, at Vanderbilt’s Institute of Medicine and Public Health. McAllister’s current role focusses on developing and implementing strategy to advance health and healthcare locally, regionally, nationally, and globally. Additionally, she leads efforts towards identifying and designing programs that transition healthcare as it is currently modeled and delivered, into new models of care, with a greater focus on health outcomes, improved value and safety, care coordination, and collaboration between traditional delivery systems and community and public organizations. She is a sought after expert in clinical and academic healthcare operations, strategic planning, and program development, and has extensive experience working with health systems and health authorities in the US, UK, Middle East, South America and Asia.
Christophe Milien, MD- Medical Director, Director of Women's Health, and an OBGYN, Partners in Health Mirebalais University Hospital
Dr. Milien is the Deputy Medical Director, Director of Women's Health, and an OBGYN at the Zanmi Lasante/ Partners in Health Mirebalais University Hospital. Dr. Milien has extensive experience in women's health, healthcare advocacy, and medical education. He was among the first healthcare providers to treat cholera patients from the Mirebalais Prison, and has held various leadership roles in Haiti's Central Plateau implementing programs in family planning and sexual violence prevention. In 2015, Dr. Milien received the distinction of being named a Fellow of Global Health Delivery from Partners in Health/Harvard University.
Christopher Sizemore , MD – Assistant Professor, Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Dr. Sizemore attended medical school at Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, followed by his residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Vanderbilt University. In 2015, he joined the faculty of Vanderbilt Medical Center’s OB/GYN Department. Dr. Sizemore has been passionate about working in global health throughout his medical career. He served internationally in the United States Army more than 20 years ago. Working to improve the health of women in the world’s poorest countries, has taken him on travels to Haiti, Africa, Central and South America, providing women’s primary care, as well as specialized gynecological/obstetrical consultation and surgical services. Recent leadership roles include serving 4 years on the Board of Directors for Visitation Hospital Foundation in Petite Riviere De Nippes, Haiti, and consulting physician to The Heartline Maternity Center in Port au Prince Haiti. Currently, his emphasis is on efforts to develop and grow the global health educational experience for OB/GYN residents at Vanderbilt.
Bart Victor, PhD – Cal Turner Professor of Moral Leadership, Owen School of Management, Vanderbilt University
Bart Victor holds the Cal Turner Chair in Moral Leadership at The Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. He teaches ethics in the MBA, EMBA, Executive Education, and MaCC programs, leads the Owen initiative on business and poverty alleviation (Project Pyramid), and serves on the Advisory Board for the Turner Family Center for Social Ventures. He joined the Owen faculty from the Institute for Management Development International (IMD), in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he was Professor of Management and Director of the Program for Management Development. Prior to IMD, Dr. Victor was on the faculties of the University of North Carolina and the University of Nebraska.
Louis-Franck Telemaque, MD, MSc - Head of the Department of Surgery at the University of the State of Haiti; Medical Directors, Professor of Surgery, and Head of the Department of General Surgery at the Hospital of the State University of Haiti (HUEH).
Dr. Telemaque has been instrumental in training many of the general surgeons practicing in Haiti and knows the health system and its challenges intimately. He serves as the Coordinator of the Haitian Review of Surgery and Anesthesia as well as the Coordinator of the Haitian SABES curriculum for resident education. He is a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons and is a Member of both the Haitian Association of Surgery and the Haitian Medical Association. Dr. Telemaque hold a Master of Science in Health Services Management and trained clinically as a surgeon in Haiti, Belgium, France, and the United States. He has spoken at a variety of international venues including the Boston launch of the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery. The Huffington Post featured Dr. Telemaque in an article shortly after the earthquake.
Sponsors
The VIGH Student Advisory Committee is grateful for the generous support of the many Sponsors of the 2017 Global Health Case Competition, without whom, the Case Competition would not have been possible.
2017 Case Competition Committee and Volunteers
Case Competition Leadership Committee:
Aiden Lee, College of Arts and Science, Case Competition Co-Chair
Paige Kelley, College of Arts and Science, Case Competition Co-Chair
Katie McGinnis, School of Medicine, Development Chair
Xueting (Hattie) Zhang, College of Arts and Science, Marketing Chair
Rui Wang, School of Medicine, Case Writing Co-Chair
Lausanne Miller, College of Arts and Science, Case Writing Co-Chair
Case Competition Committee Members:
Kevin Cyr, School of Engineering
Tina Yin, College of Arts and Sciences
Saad Rehman, School of Medicine
Jennifer Miao, School of Medicine
Olivia Harris, College of Arts and Science
Sachin Sanam, College of Arts and Science
Vineet Desai, School of Engineering
Lauren Lambert, College of Arts and Science
VIGH, Student Advisory Council Presidents:
Joseph Starnes, School of Medicine
Sparsh Gupta, College of Arts and Science
VIGH, Student Advisory Council Advisors:
Marie Martin
Elizabeth Rose