The 2021 BAHM Case Competition – the first global event of its kind – gave more than 80 students across the world the unique opportunity to work collaboratively across borders and to develop telehealth solutions for underserved communities worldwide.
The proposed business models were scored by a distinguished international panel of judges and on April 9, the winners were announced at a closing symposium.
The Wharton School and Strathmore Business School (First Place)
Vanessa Folkerts (Wharton), Penghui Jason Chen (Wharton), Winnie Abuto (Strathmore), Abigail Ndirangu (Strathmore)
CASE: Nufaika Health, a B2B e-commerce marketplace for pharmaceutical procurement designed to empower small pharmacies to sell quality medicines in rural areas in Kenya.
The Yale School of Management (Second Place)
Toshinari Ishikawa, Melanie Taub, Jingwen Li
CASE: A telehealth business model maximizes social media, data collection and analytics, and a well-trained health care workforce to improve health care access, early detection, and other challenges in the Indian health care market.
UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School (Third Place)
Kim Ngo, Braxton Cline, Michael Koha, Matthew Fordham
CASE: The “Medela” healthcare service designed to address limited access to care and care delivery in rural areas by coordinating, connecting, and providing continuity of care between patients and healthcare professionals.
A fourth team was selected for the “People’s Choice” Award by students participating in the competition:
Baylor University, Hankamer School of Business (People’s Choice)
Melissa Van de Hey, Kristen Koehler, Macy Scott
CASE: Spot On Health, which offers a mobile robot solution that incorporates customized telehealth capabilities, including an iPad, a microphone, and a sound amplifier, to bring holistic healthcare services to hurricane victims in the Caribbean.
The host schools and faculty, and the competition judges
A strong collaborative effort among the three BAHM host schools and their faculty made the first global case competition possible:
- Magda Rosenmoeller, IESE , Barcelona, Spain
- Ben Ngoye, Strathmore Business School, Nairobi, Kenya
- Ingrid Nembhard and Steve Sammut, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA
Thank you to our collaborating BAHM member schools:
- The Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and Mohali, India
- INCAE Business School, Costa Rica
And thank you for the support from Harvard Business School and Prof. Regi Herzlinger for her “Building the Business Case” presentation at the competition’s opening symposium.
And finally, thank you to our international panel of judges:
- Moses Alobo, Programmes Manager, Grand Challenges, Africa Academy of Sciences
- Iris Berman, Vice President Telehealth Services, Northwell Health
- Edward M. Brown, CEO, OTN Telemedicine
- Martin E. Doerfler, Associate Chief Medical Officer, Northwell Health
- Michael Jelinske, Associate Director, Leapfrog Investments
- Afsane Jetha, Managing Partner & CEO, Alta Semper Capital LLP
- Robert M. Karanja, Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Villgro Africa
- Donna Lecky, CFO and Co-Founder, Healthventure
- Pratap Kumar, Lecturer, Strathmore University
- Carlos Nueno, President International Operations, Teladoc Health
- Hendrick Miles Ramsey, Director Médico, Área De Salud Cariari
- Akshara Reddy, Head of Strategic Programs, Aetna’s Commercial Business & Markets
- Paul Timmers, Professor, European University Cyprus
- Alejandro Vega, CEO, Huli Health, Costa Rica
- Joshua Williams, Lead, Project Support, Ontario Ministry of Health
Competition background
The Closing Symposium was held on April 9, 2021. As part of a global virtual event, finalists presented their telehealth business models for underserved communities and then received their prizes. The winners of the “People’s Choice” award, selected by students who participated in the competition, were also announced.
Preceding the student portion, was a panel discussion featuring three industry leaders – Afsane Jetha, Carlos Nueno and Joshua Williams – who had also served as competition judge. Moderated by Ingrid Nembhard, health care management professor at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the competition host team, the panel discussed the promise of telehealth from a technology, investment and policy perspective.
“Telehealth Business Models in Underserved Communities.”
The role of telehealth has been evolving for nearly two decades at differing paces in the developed world and in the developing world. The pace of integration into health care services was vastly accelerated in both worlds, starting in the Spring of 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Existing technology platforms were swiftly modified and adopted for use in developed countries as health providers sought to maintain a safe social distance between health care professionals and patients. In the developing world, as the pandemic took hold, telehealth approaches that had been incubating were adopted quickly in those regions with bandwidth and sufficient smart-device penetration. In both worlds, a lesson of the pandemic is that telehealth is a viable approach to providing primary care and surveillance in the face of chronic illness. Another lesson is that telehealth is an important tool for reaching under-resourced and under-served communities irrespective of the overall state of a nation’s economic development.
For purposes of this competition, we will use the Health Resources Services Administrations definition of telehealth, i.e., the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration. Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications. Telehealth is different from telemedicine because it refers to a broader scope of remote healthcare services than telemedicine. While telemedicine refers specifically to remote clinical services, telehealth can refer to remote non-clinical services, such as provider training, administrative meetings, and continuing medical education, in addition to clinical services.
The members of BAHM believe that a potential new normal that can emerge from the use of telehealth during the pandemic is expanded and improved access to health care for populations historically lacking consistent access. Additionally, the use of technology to deliver health care in these settings offers the possibility of improved health outcomes and reduced costs. Telehealth can extend care to the elderly, the poor, rural populations, and those at the end-of-life.
BAHM is looking for new business models that encourage wider and permanent use of telehealth and that respond to the pressing needs of vulnerable populations whether in the developed or developing world. The challenges to such implementation are as much social and economic as they are technological. New business models will seek to integrate programs of remote primary care with access to providers as needed, especially when patients require vigilance and support for chronic disease conditions.
The 2021 BAHM Case Competition challenges student teams to identify sustainable business approaches for incorporating telehealth into health care systems targeting under-resourced or underserved communities whether they be in the developed or developing world.
Webinars
American Telehealth Association Webinars:
Articles and Research
Opening Virtual Symposium: December 9, 2020 at 10:00 AM EST:
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10:00 AM to 11:15 AM Eastern (8:30 PM, India; 6:00 PM Nairobi; 4:00 PM Barcelona; 10:00 AM EST; 9:00 AM Costa Rica; 7:00 AM Pacific)
- Join Here (hosted by Harvard Business School)
Break: 11:15-11:30 am EST
Part 2: Student Mixer Hosted by IESE in Barcelona
11:30 AM to 12:30 PM Eastern (10:00 PM, India; 7:30 PM Nairobi; 5:30 PM Barcelona; 11:30 AM EST; 10:30 AM Costa Rica; 8:30 AM Pacific)This Part is designed for the discussion of Competition details, for the Campus Team students to confer, and for students to mix and mingle for the purpose of forming international teams.
- Join Here (hosted by IESE)
BAHM Member Student Teams Selected and Named: Friday, January 15, 2021
- (Consult with your institutional contact for your institutions internal competition rules and dates.)
- For selected teams: Virtual second seminar with Professor Regina Herzlinger. (Date and time to be announced).
Final Submissions Due: Friday, March 19, 2021
Closing Symposium and Announcement of Winners: Friday, April 9, 2021
- This year, given the global nature of the pandemic and the virtual structure of the Competition, BAHM is encouraging students from schools based in the US and Canada to collaborate with students from BAMH institutions in Africa (Strathmore), India (Indian School of Business), Latin America (INCAE) or Europe (IESE). Of course, teams of students solely from non-US or Canada institutions, e.g., Strathmore-ISB team, are also encouraged. Student teams assembled within a single institution – whether USA, Canada or other International — are also eligible to participate in the competition.
- The opening Symposium and Mixer/Speed Date will provide an opportunity for students to learn about developing innovative business models in health care from a renowned scholar, explore the competition program, and determine if they wish to form an international team. Following the mixer, students interested in forming an international team will be directed to a webpage where they can declare their interest, provide a capsule of their background and high-level telehealth interests and their contact information. Students seeking to form international teams are encouraged to contact others seeking partners, listed on the webpage.
- All BAHM member schools (US, Canada, IESE, INCAE, ISB and SBS), may select one team of their own students with up to four (4) students competing, using their own selection process.
- In Addition, in order to promote international collaboration among the students, a BAHM member school may have one or two of its students participate on one Joint International Team (JIT), i.e. a second team. A JIT can have up to four students from a US or Canadian school and a BAHM international member school (i.e. maximum two students per school in the team). The BAHM International Schools are: IESE, INCAE, ISB and Strathmore. Once students from different institutions have declared their interest to their campus coordinator, the campus coordinators from the two institutions will confer to establish their joint selection criteria.
- Schools with students in a JIT do not need to have a separate team of school-only students. Thus, a school may have representation via a school-only team, a JIT, or a school-only team and a JIT.
- Teams may include students from other graduate programs within BAHM schools including, but not limited to MPP, MPA, MPH, MS, etc. provided there is at least one student from the MBA program with a focus on health care management represented. For more information, contact the appropriate BAHM member institution campus representative below. The institutions should submit: Team member names, degree program and year of graduation, email addresses, and resumes should be submitted to BAHM via this link (resumes all in one PDF) to a sharing box to be provided. Teams must be selected by the institutions and BAHM informed by Friday, January 15 by 11:59 PM GMT. Students with questions about team formation should consult with their campus representative identified in Section 8 of this announcement.
- For selected teams, as well as BAHM faculty and their students, there will be an additional virtual seminar presented by Professor Herzlinger of HBS on “How to Create a Business Plan.” Date and time to be announced.
In general, business models for this competition should:
- Identify and describe existing telehealth providers and platforms in the developed and developing world.
- Identify target countries or populations and their providers, employers, plans, consumers, payment mechanisms.
- Explore service platforms and service systems to meet local and special needs, as well as define data-infrastructure necessary for providing telehealth.
- Develop and validate potential financing models (fee-for-service, case rates, capitation, value-based payments/bonus models, mixed models) in view of a country’s payer environment; and
- Specify Implementation, economics, marketing, and sales cycle for telehealth.
Teams in this competition should prepare a business plan that addresses each of the following topics comprehensively. Each is important for business model development and evaluation:
- The Type of Innovation: What is the innovation? What type of innovation is it? Technological, service, process?
- Six Factors Alignment (https://hmpi.org/2016/10/17/diffusion-of-global-innovations-in-health-care-how-to-make-it-happen/):
- How well is the innovation aligned with the Six Factors in the environment that can make it or break it? Where the alignment is poor, please address remedies, if any. The Six Factors are:
- Structure: Is the status quo health care system a friend or a foe?
- Financing: What are the primary sources of reimbursement and capital?
- Accountability: What are the credible demonstrations of impact on cost, quality, and access?
- Public Policy: How well is the innovation aligned with public policy and why?
- Consumers: How well is the innovation aligned with consumers and why?
- Technology: Is the technology likely to be obviated by competing technologies?
- The Business Model: The following elements of the business model for the innovation:
- Strategic Market Assessment: What is the market? how large is it? Who are the main competitors?
- Competitive Analysis: What is the competitive strategy for the innovation?
- Financial Viability: What percentage of the market will enable the innovation to break even?
- Managerial Assessments: What are the needed characteristics of the top management?
- Sustainability: How sustainable are the revenues, costs, IP, and management and why
- Valuation Analyses: What is the NPV of the innovation over a five-year horizon?
- Societal Impact: How does the venture “do good”?
Each team is required to submit a one-page summary of their business plan and a recorded presentation that covers their plan in greater detail. Summary, presentation slides and one-page summary must be submitted by 11:59 PM GMT, Friday, March 19, 2021. All references and data must be fully cited. The submission e-platform for these deliverables will be announced to teams in January 2021.
Specifications
One-Page Summary: Teams are required to submit a one-page summary outlining their business model. All teams are limited to one-page, single spaced, one-inch margins. For cross-team learning purposes, the one-page summary will be distributed and reviewed by all competing teams. Participating teams will vote for a “people’s choice” award, which carries a separate monetary prize. Summaries should be anonymous; they should mention neither school affiliations nor team names.
Presentation Slides. PowerPoint presentation is required (up to 20 slides including tables) but teams may use any presentation format. In presenting this plan, it is more important to show the depth of your research than to provide a cursory overview of the plan. For example, if there are several potential indications or markets, be sure to address at least the most promising indication or market in depth and offer the potential for additional indications or markets.
The PowerPoint and Recording Specifications
- Teams are allowed a recorded presentation of their slides of up to 25 minutes.
- Teams choose whether all students or a subset of their team presents.
- Presentations will be recorded by teams using recording systems provided by their own institutions. Teams will upload their final slides with recording to the website designated by BAHM.
- Teams should carefully review their slides and recordings before uploading their submission. Teams may not make any changes to the recording or the deck once submitted.
- Teams should present their plans anonymously. That is, teams will not identify the school(s) that they represent to the judges. Judges will identify the team by a code provided by the hosts, not the name of the
- Recordings will be apportioned to three judges on a random basis.
- The judges may issue up to three questions for each submission. These questions will be forwarded to the teams for written response not to exceed 100 words each. Responses are due within 48 hours of receipt by the teams. Answers will then be returned to the judges for factoring into their decision.
Scoring
- Recorded Presentation and Slide Deck: 75%
- Answers to Judges questions: 15%
- One-page summary: 10%
Judging Criteria
- Comprehensiveness of research
- Clarity of problem, assessment, and strategic solutions
- Strength of overall analysis
- Consideration of key uncertainties
- Overall feasibility, including scalability and sustainability
- The strength of proposed business model
- The impact on target populations
- Integration with the local health system and existing telehealth services, if applicable.
- Three judges will review each submission
- The judging panel will be comprised of appropriate health care
- Top 3 scoring teams will be awarded prizes
- Scores and prizes will be announced at a Zoom Symposium on Friday, April 9, 2021.
- First Prize: $10,000 or $11,000 for an international team
- Second Prize: $5,000 or $6000 for an international team
- Third Prize: $2,500 or $3500 for an international team
- Peoples’ Choice: $1,000 or $2000 for an international team (based on peer voting on the one-page summaries)
- Papers should be based on students’ original work. Students can work with faculty to develop their assessments and
- Not all schools can give academic credit for the competition. For those that do, requirements will be determined by the school and may take the form of independent studies, field projects, or other project-based coursework. It is up to the participating students to understand the requirements of their school at the outset of this
The internal contacts for each institution:
Baruch University, CUNY
Alex Mills: Alex.Mills@baruch.cuny.edu
Baylor University
Forest Kim: Forest_Kim@baylor.edu
Neil Fleming: Neil.Fleming@BSWHealth.org
Boston University, Questrom School of Business
Ned Rimer: nedrimer@bu.edu
Georgia State University
Lisette Branscomb: lbranscomb@gsu.edu
Andrew Sumner: asumner@gsu.edu
Harvard Business School
Frank Sutter: fsutter@hbs.edu
IESE Business School
Magda Rosenmöller: magda@iese.edu
Indian School of Business
Sowmya Shashidhara: sowmya_shashidhara@isb.edu
Sarang Deo: sarang_deo@isb.edu
INCAE Business School
Andrea Prado: andrea.prado@incae.edu
Johns Hopkins University, Carey School of Business
Kevin Frick: kfrick@jhu.edu
Miami Business School
Steve Ullmann: sullmann@bus.miami.edu
Jaquelinne Biver: jbiver@bus.miami.edu
Strathmore Business School
Ben Ngoye: bngoye@strathmore.edu
University of Berkeley, Haas School of Business
Kim MacPherson: kmacpherson@berkeley.edu
University of Colorado, Denver
Lindsey Brelje: Lindsey.brelje@ucdenver.edu
University of Minnesota, Carlson
Pinar Mandic: pkmandic@umn.edu
Jessica Haupt: jahaupt@umn.edu
University of North Carolina, Kenan-Flagler
Markus Saba: Markus_Saba@kenan-flagler.unc.edu
Erin Leach: Erin_Leach@kenan-flagler.unc.edu
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton
June Kinney: kinneyj@wharton.upenn.edu
Ingrid Nembhard: ingridn@wharton.upenn.edu
University of Toronto
Rosemary Hannam: Rosemary.Hannam@Rotman.Utoronto.Ca
William Mitchell: william.mitchell@Rotman.Utoronto.Ca
Vanderbilt, Owen Graduate School of Business
Larry VanHorn: larry.vanhorn@owen.vanderbilt.edu
Scarlett Gilfus: Scarlett.Gilfus@owen.vanderbilt.edu
Yale University
Howard Forman: Howard.Forman@Yale.edu
Afsane Jetha, MBA, Managing Partner & CEO (Founding Shareholder), Alta Semper Capital LLP
Akshara Reddy, Head of Strategic Programs, Aetna’s Commercial Business and Markets
Alejandro Vega, MBA, CEO, Huli Health, Costa Rica
Carlos Nueno, MBA, President of International Operations, Teladoc Health
Donna Lecky, JD, MBA, CFO and Co-Founder, HealthVenture
Edward M. Brown, MD, CEO, OTN Telemedicine
Hendrick Miles Ramsey, MD, Director Médico, Área de Salud Cariari
Iris Berman, RN, MSN, CCRN, Vice President for Telehealth Services, Northwell Health
Joshua Williams, PT, Ontario Ministry of Health
Martin E. Doerfler, MD, Associate Chief Medical Officer, Northwell Health
Michael Jelinske, Associate Director, LeapFrog Investments
Paul Timmers, PhD, MBA, Professor, European University Cyprus
Pratap Kumar, MD, Lecturer, Strathmore University
Robert M. Karanja, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Villgro Africa
Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy hosted BAHM’s 2020 annual case competition March 20-21 – and, because of COVID-19, BAHM’s first virtual case competition.
MBA student teams from 10 BAHM-member schools developed business-based technology solutions to expand home- and community-based medical care. A distinguished panel of seven judges from across the healthcare spectrum judged the submissions, which were anonymous, and the top three teams were awarded cash prizes.
Thank you and congratulations to all the participants for pulling together excellent ideas during the challenges and uncertainty of a major health crisis. The 2020 winners were:
Baylor University – Hankamer School of Business: 1st Place
- Team Members: Ginnie Berg, Jackson Price & Tanner Houston
- Case: Radius Healthcare: A telehealth and data company targeting truck drivers through a concierge medicine model that does not require insurance
Baruch College – Zicklin School of Business at Baruch College: 2nd Place
- Team Members: Alana Noble-Kirk, Charles Connelly & Eve Gottesman
- Case: Common Ground: Cloud-hosted software for patients with multiple chronic conditions in major metropolitan ambulatory healthcare systems
Boston University – Questrom School of Business: 3rd Place
- Team Members: Haley Jensen, Jennifer Kennedy & Zhengyi (Patrick) Pu
- Case: Coffee on the Couch: A home-based service accessible via a user’s TV or video-enabled device to address social isolation among seniors