MCG students win prize for inaugural health care case competition

Daniel Adamkiewicz, a second-year medical student at the Medical College of Georgia and a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Club, along with Nishtha Ahuja, Anjeli Patel and Darsani Reddy, ran an inaugural case competition to study value deficits and its impact on quality of care, resources and stewardship.

Each team had to design a solution and submit a PowerPoint presentation with a speech recording to a panel of judges, discussing a proposal.

“It was amazing to see the level of thought and creativity that went into the recommendations presented by our contestants,” Adamkiewicz said.

The diversity pool of innovative ideas within each submission sparked an intense deliberation process. However, the judges reached a consensus on The Patient’s Post-Discharge Advocacy Liaison, a program plan to decrease hospital readmission and myocardial infarction recurrence for high-risk patients. The winning group included James Alin, Brian Basden, Nikhil Gangasani, and Princess Ogundu, and they were awarded a $500 cash prize sponsored by the nonprofit Choosing Wisely from the ABIM Foundation.

“We plan for this to be an annual event and hope to grow participation outside of the medical college to include more allied health, nursing and dental student teams,” said Adamkiewicz. “We would also love to see interdisciplinary teams with members from more than one health care college.”

Due to COVID-19, the 2020 launch year of the competition had to be completely remote, but this did not hinder engagement or commitment from participants. Moving forward, he hopes to have the competition in person to create more opportunities for networking amongst faculty and students.

“We are very thankful for the support from Dr. Chris Moriates, executive director for Costs of Care, who helped inspire the competition and who also sponsored our winning prize,” said Adamkiewicz.

The event would not have been possible without mentorship from Dr. Pascha Schafer, Augusta University Medical Center’s chief quality and safety officer, Julie Moretz, AUMC’s assistant vice president of patient experience, and Dr. John Thornton, a cardiologist and professor at MCG.

Meet the winners

“I’m grateful to our mentors (Dr. Kaminstein, Dr. Thornton, and Dr. Patel) for pushing us to think creatively and come up with realistic actionable solutions. I plan to pay it forward by helping organize next year’s competition, introducing elements of Value Based Care in our medical curriculum, and ultimately practicing value, data, and empathy driven care for my future patients.” – James Alin

“I would like to thank everyone who made this case competition possible, including the organizers, my teammates, and our mentors. The case allowed us to strengthen our problem-solving skills, to research the relevant medical literature, and to communicate with mentors in medicine. I appreciated the opportunity to brainstorm and create a solution that could add value to our health care system.” – Brian Basden

“This was a really eye-opening experience. It really helped me get a better grasp as to the shortcomings of our systems and how it disadvantages those who need it the most. It also made me more hopeful and more determined to make a positive impact. Thank you to the program organizers for facilitating such a wonderful learning opportunity, our mentors/faculty who were so willing to advise us, the Free Mental Health Clinic, Tyler Beauchamp and to patients such as Mrs. Ngyuen.” – Princess Ogundu

“Having just completed a master’s degree in public health (MPH) in health care management, I found this competition to be an exciting opportunity to apply what I have learned in a team-based setting. I enjoyed brainstorming the best approach to solve the case and learning how to use the Six Sigma quality-improvement process as a foundation for our solution with the guidance of Dr. Santosh Patel, our advisor. I am proud to see MCG students like Daniel Adamkiewicz, Nishtha Ahuja, Anjeli Patel, and Darsani Reddy paving the way.” – Nikhil Gangasani