Optum Stratethon Season 3: Connecting the brightest people and ideas across the healthcare ecosystem

Pre-pandemic, efforts were already ongoing to bridge the gaps in healthcare, with an established need to achieve the Triple Aim of accessibility, efficiency and affordability, in a manner universal and equitable. The pandemic accelerated technological innovations in healthcare to try and fulfil the need for making care simpler and more effective for everyone.

Optum Global Solutions (OGS) (India) Pvt. Ltd. is one of the fastest growing digital health and product innovation companies in India. OGS is a part of Optum, and UnitedHealth Group – a Fortune 5 company, and is at the forefront of delivering end-to-end solutions, spanning the entire health care value chain.

In line with their culture of innovation, Optum recently hosted Stratethon Season 3. This is a platform that brings together the brightest of minds to solve real and current healthcare related problems through technology and innovation. The goal of the annual event is to promote innovation amongst students and present them with opportunities to work on real-life problems in healthcare. The past 2 seasons of the Stratethon saw participants come up with unique and innovative ideas, from providing solutions for the rising cost of chronic disease management, to tech-based products that can help reduce the gaps in healthcare.

Similarly, Stratethon Season 3 was held to identify, invite and incentivize thinkers and the most innovative solutions that can address health equity through solutions that help eliminate health disparities in how people access and utilize health care.

With as many as 16K+ registrations, Stratethon Season 3 saw participation from 202 business and engineering schools across India, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Hongkong and Vietnam.

The competition was spread over a period of 9 weeks. The solutions, the talent and the enthusiasm, made it quite hard for the jury to pick the finalists for the grand finale.

The engineering teams that made it to the finale were:

1. BitMagic from VIT Chennai

2. Bytecoders from SRMIST Chennai

3. Coders, OP Thapar University, Patiala

4. FEUturistic from FEU Tech Philippines

5. Optumus Prime from VIT Chennai

6. Tech TiTams from FEU Tech Philippines

7. Digi-Tams from FEU Tech Philippines

Business school track finalists:

1. Strategicians SPJIMR Mumbai

2. The Norten Crown IIM Lucknow

3. Phoenix SJMSOM from IIT Bombay

4. The Last Leaves from IIM Trichy

5. Always Extra from NTU Singapore

6. PwX YYDS from NTU Singapore

The grand finale was kicked off with Siji Sivadasan, Associate Director, Business Analytics Strategy at OGS, introducing the case studies that the shortlisted engineering teams worked on.

Medical non-adherence, Siji explained, was mainly due to factors like discontinuing medication and failing to refill or taking doses at incorrect times. This often puts a huge burden on an already stressed healthcare ecosystem. Ensuring medical adherence can ease the burden and bring down overall costs for all the stakeholders.

Participating teams had to brainstorm and develop innovative solutions to ensure medical adherence and bring down the cost of healthcare:

1. For the aged population

2. For minority groups

3. For low literacy population

With this case study, the goal was to harness health tech solutions to achieve healthcare equity while keeping in mind social determinants of health — social, economic, education, healthcare, transportation, and environmental.

Each team presented for 7 minutes and this was followed by a rigorous question and answer session by the jury.

Mr. Nishid Sachdeva, Vice President, Operations, Country Lead, OGS India, presented the Strength in Numbers Award and the Living our Values Award.

Strength in Numbers Award

Colleges with maximum number of teams to have registered for Optum Stratethon Season 3 while also showcasing integrity and passion.

1. KL University

2. IIM, Indore

3.FEU Tech Philippines

Living our Values Award

Teams that presented case studies showcasing Optum values.

1. NIT Durgapur

2. ISB, India

The winners for Optum Stratethon Season 3 were

1. Engineering school track winner: Optumus Prime from VIT Chennai

2. Business school track winner: Phoenix SJMSOM from IIT Bombay

3. Engineering school track – The Star of the Show Award: Impelido Ervin A. Co Melo from FEU Tech

4. Engineering school track - Audience Choice Award: Digi-Tams from FEU Tech Philippines.

5. Business school track - The Star of the Show Award: Wang Bowen (Sylvia) from NTU

The winners from the business and engineering tracks can look forward to a prize money of $3,000 each and the runners-up, finalists will be given ample opportunities to bag pre-placement interviews at Optum.