The fifth annual Rocky Mountain Region Public Health Case Competition was held in the Health Science Library on the Anschutz Medical Campus earlier this month. Fifteen teams participated, with members representing all health professions, including pharmacy. Out of 84 total participants, 25 of them were from the CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy, the most the school has ever had participate
The teams received a realistic case study about suicide prevalence. They had 24 hours to analyze the case, create a solution and present it to a panel of judges. "The competition really challenges students to work as an interprofessional team," explains CU Pharmacy student Jennifer Wang. Wang participated in the competition last year and served as the marketing chair this year.
Elizabeth Ko, a first year CU Pharmacy student, was on the first place winning team. Along with Ko, her other team members included three graduate public health students from the Colorado School of Public Health, as well as a nursing student. The focus of their presentation was on veteran suicide prevention and titled "Serve and Support: You Stood for Us, Now Let Us Stand for You.” Their project included media ads and posters, plans for a mobile app and social media outreach along with a peer navigation program that enrolls veterans at the time of discharge. Click here to check out the winning team's submission.
CU Pharmacy faculty member, Benjamin Chavez, PharmD served on the panel of judges along with two House Representatives for Colorado, Kim Ransom and Dafna Michaelson Jenet. Jenet announced that the students' ideas influenced her to want to push 25 new bill ideas on mental health.
Below are a list of the pharmacy students that placed in this year's competition:
1st place - Elizabeth Ko (P1)
2nd place - Angie Kim (P1)
People's Choice awardees - Hailee Griffin (P1) and Meena Mattamana (P1)
For more on the competition and the full results, check out the article in CU Anschutz Today.
