Annual UMN Interdisciplinary Health Data Competition

• Registration: November 18 - December 15
  Register as a team or an individual you will be placed on a team.
• Competition Kick-off: February 4 (virtual)
   Required data set and challenge theme/guidelines are announced.
• Project Submission Deadline: February 16, 11:59 p.m.
  Teams must submit their analysis as a one-page Executive Summary and PowerPoint presentation (20 slides max), including a presentation voice-over (max 20 min).
• Round 1 Judging: February 17 - 18 - 19
  Sit back and relax. Judges will review all the projects and select the top 4 teams.
• Final Presentations: February 26 
  Top 4 teams present in-person to a panel of judges. All teams are invited.

Teams are required to use a specified dataset created for use in the competition. Additional publicly available data use is permitted. 

2025 Data Set Partner & Theme: Mimilabs is providing the required data set and the theme is "Healthcare Provider Deep Dive: Connecting Quality, Payment, and Social Context"

Our aim with this theme is to enable students to dive into a comprehensive data set, covering a variety of healthcare provider characteristics. Specifically, the data set will include information on providers’ participation in quality payment programs, such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), along with their associated scores, rewards or penalties, and relevant social context tied to the geographic areas in which they practice. 

Round 1:

• Submit a one-page Executive Summary - maximum of 500 words (not including references) 
• Submit a PowerPoint presentation outlining the team's project - maximum of 20 slides 
• Record a voice-over with PowerPoint, presenting the team's analysis, insights, and innovations - maximum of 20 minutes

Final:

• The top 4 finalists will present projects to a panel of industry expert judges - each team has 20 minutes to present followed by 5 minutes for judges' questions

A rubric will be provided when data is released

• Competition is open to all current graduate and professional degree-seeking students at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
• Maximum of 5 students per team 
• Each team must have students from at least 2 different colleges or schools within the U of M Twin Cities
• Students may only participate on one team
• You can form your own team or request to be placed on a team
• No individual entries are allowed

• First Place Team: $4,000
• Second Place Team: $2,000
• Third Place Team: $1,000

Since 2023, the Interdisciplinary Health Data Competition is part of the 1Health interprofessional education curriculum at the University of Minnesota. This means that the competition offers a valuable interprofessional learning experience that has been carefully designed to expand upon students' skills and knowledge in preparation for their future as collaborative health professionals. 

For scholars participating in the 1Health interprofessional education curriculum this means that upon completion of the Interdisciplinary Health Data Competition, a record demonstrating your involvement in this experience will be added to your personal "1Health IPE Transcript" which can be accessed via the 1Health Database after completing all competition requirements and reflection.   

2024 1st Round Judges:

Industry Experts:

• Jeff Clement, PhD: Augsburg University
• Ed Walczak, MD: Yale New Haven Health
• Quincy Gu, PhD: University of Minnesota
• Jennifer Brown: Stinson LLP
• Craig Solid, PhD: Solid Research Group LLC
• Sawyer Radermacher: Optum
• Heather Britt: Wilder Research
• Todd Johnson, MBA: IZiel Healthcare
• Matt Chock: Bind Benefits
• Alex Everhart, PhD: Washington University in St. Louis    
• Len Kne: U-Spatial (UMN OVPR)
• Cora Peterson, PhD: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Faculty:

• Pinar Karaca Mandic, PhD: Carlson School of Management, BACH
• Steve Johnson, PhD: Institute for Health Informatics
• Joel Farley, PhD: College of Pharmacy
• Caitlin Carrol, PhD: School of Public Health, Health Policy and Management
• Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC: Center for Nursing Informatics
• Rui Zhang, PhD: UMN Med School
• Julian Wolfson, PhD: School of Public Health, Biostatistics
• De Liu, PhD: Carlson School of Management

2024 Final Round Judges:

Industry Experts:

• Pam Mink, PhD: MN Dept of Health
• Nancy Walczak, PhD: Lewin Group (retired)

Faculty:

• Jim Wilgenbusch, PhD: Research and Innovation Office

• Hayley Borck: Data Science Initiative

   

This competition would not be possible without the support and involvement of University of Minnesota faculty and industry partners!

I registered as an individual. When will I find out what team I am on? 

• Emails will be sent prior to Kickoff to all registered participants and will include their team members' information as well as other important details.   

Are we more in favor of an exploratory analysis?

• It is up to your team whether you want to do exploratory analysis, predictive analysis, or take another approach. 

I competed in the Health Data Competition in the past. Can I compete again?

• Yes! Past participants are welcome to compete again since each year the topic and required dataset change so teams will need to take different approaches and bring new insights to their projects.

Our team members are dual-degree programs from the same 2 schools. Does this meet the requirement of 2 colleges/schools?

• Yes! Dual-degree programs meet the requirement of having 2 colleges/schools represented on each team.

I am a part-time student. Can I participate in the competition? 

• Yes! All graduate and professional degree-seeking students at the University of Minnesota are eligible to participate. 

Can our project focus on one specific area of the dataset or do all aspects of the data need to be used? 

• Teams can choose a topic that is of most interest to them while utilizing the required dataset in some way. They can choose a specific topic that only incorporates a portion of the required dataset while using other publicly available data. 

Contact [email protected] with additional questions.  

See past competition information here.