2026 Case Competition

The 7th Annual YIGH Global Health Case Competition took place on February 7, 2026. Fifty students from Yale College and the Schools of Medicine, Management, Nursing, and Public Health developed proposals using infectious disease surveillance to address the rise in disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Student teams proposed innovative approaches to strengthening disease surveillance and outbreak response, including community-based early warning networks, radio resilience hubs, SMS reporting systems, and integrated environmental and community surveillance models.

• First Place: “UMUSEKE Health Network” - Madi Baltagulov (MPH '26), Emily Neumeyer (YC '26, MPH '27), Thin Rati Oo (MPH '27), Prisha Saikumar (MPH '26), and Yosra Raziani (PhD '27)
• Second Place: “SENTRY-DRC” - Carys Mihardja (BF '26), Anna Novoselov (MS '27), and Tia Ketsan (MEng '26)
• Third Place: “RiverWatch Health Alliance” - Elon Atlaw (BS '26), Michelle Griffith (MPH '27), Patrick Ampofo (MPH '27), Ruchi Gupta (MD/PhD '29), and Yanran Zhou (MPH '27)

Judges for this year’s competition included: 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; and Caroline Piselli, CEO and Founder of Piselli Global Associates, LLC.