On Saturday, February 7th, 50 students from Yale College and the Schools of Medicine, Management, Nursing, and Public Health came together for the 7th Annual YIGH Global Health Case Competition. Leading up to the competition, student participants spent two weeks preparing a proposal that used infectious disease surveillance to address the uptick in disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
"This year's Global Health Case Competition reflects the truly cross-disciplinary nature of global health work. The student organizers' leadership, organization, and adaptability created a strong and meaningful experience for everyone involved." Fatema Basrai, Managing Director, Sustainable Health Initiative
This year's theme comes at a time of ongoing conflict in the DRC, alongside a rise in disease outbreaks. These intersecting challenges, compounded by resource extraction and the breakdown of health systems, have created significant challenges across the country. In response, students were tasked with developing innovative solutions to tackle these overlapping crises.
“Events like the YIGH Global Health Case Competition highlight the creativity and leadership of our students. They are thinking critically about health systems, equity, and innovation, which is exactly what this moment in global health requires.” – Ingrid Katz, MD, MHS, Director, Yale Institute for Global Health.
The winning team – UMUSEKE Health Network, meaning "new dawn," included Madi Baltagulov, MPH '26; Emily Neumeyer, YC '26, MPH '27; Thin Rati Oo, MPH '27; Prisha Saikumar, MPH '26; and Yosra Raziani, PhD '27. Their proposal outlined a three-pillar, climate-resilient infectious disease surveillance model for conflict-affected eastern DRC. The first pillar built a community alert network of trusted local actors for early detection. The second step established radio resilience hubs to ensure reliable communication despite infrastructure gaps, and the third step deployed mobile and sentinel teams to verify and respond to outbreaks rapidly. The team emphasized embedding surveillance within existing health platforms to ensure sustainability, Ministry of Health co-ownership, and long-term scalability, positioning the model as connective health security infrastructure rather than a parallel system.
"I greatly appreciated the comprehensive research presented within a well-organized format and the respectful communication of sensitive issues. Your transition from onsite to virtual actually created an impactful experience, very similar to pitching to real-world decision makers." – Caroline R. Piselli, DNP, MBA, CEO and Founder of Piselli Global Associates, LLC
SENTRY-DRC came in second place, led by students Carys Mihardja (BF '26), Anna Novoselov (MS'27), and Tia Ketsan (MEng' 26). SENTRY-DRC outlined conversions to routine community observations, such as school absenteeism, water-pump and chlorination failures, and surges in shelter headcount, into verified early-warning signals through SMS reporting and rapid verification, adding a powerful new community-signal layer to national surveillance systems that allows outbreaks to be detected and contained before transmission accelerates.
In third place was RiverWatch Health Alliance, which included Elon Atlaw, BS '26; Michelle Griffith, MPH '27; Patrick Ampofo, MPH '27; Ruchi Gupta, MD/PhD '29; and Yanran Zhou, MPH '27. RiverWatch Health Alliance offered a dynamic cholera surveillance model designed to respond to the shifting demographic and environmental realities of communities along the major rivers in the DRC. The intervention integrated community‑level reporting, environmental risk signals, and rapid verification mechanisms to detect outbreaks earlier and more accurately. By enabling timely updates on cholera cases, treatment needs, and emerging hotspots, RiverWatch aimed to strengthen local and national surveillance systems and support faster, more targeted responses in fragile, hard‑to‑reach settings.
The winning team, UMUSEKE Health Network, will go on to represent Yale at the fully virtual Emory Global Health Case Competition next month. Students from Yale took home first place in 2022 and 2024.
2026 Case Competition Planning Team
- Aiwen (Erin) Chen, MPH ’26, Event Chair
- Bruce Zhang, MPH ’27, Marketing Coordinator
- Kayla Sohn, MPH ’27, Faculty Communications Coordinator
- Sarenya Anandaraj, MPH ’26, Logistics Coordinator
- Jack Carew, PhD ’27, Case Writing Team Lead
- Case Writing Team: Faihaa Dafalla, Postdoctoral Associate ‘26; Amy Guan, MPH ’26; Olivia McCarthy, MPH ’26; Lisa Quainoo, MPH ‘27; Rong Sun, MPH ‘26
2026 Case Competition Judges
- Jason Abaluck, Professor of Economics, Yale School of Management
- Amy Bei, Associate Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases), Yale School of Public Health
- Mayur Desai, Professor of Epidemiology (Chronic Diseases) and Associate Dean for Community and Practice, Yale School of Public Health
- Sunil Parikh, Professor of Epidemiology (Microbial Diseases) and of Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Public Health
- Caroline Piselli, CEO and Founder of Piselli Global Associates, LLC