First-year SLU M.H.A. Students Place Third in Health Administration Case Contest
04/25/2025
A team of first-year Saint Louis University Master of Health Administration students placed third at the 14th Annual The Ohio State University First-Year Health Administration Case Competition.
The annual OSU case competition attracts teams from CAHME-accredited health administration programs to contend in this exciting competition. The top six teams advance to the finals, with the top four teams placing.
The annual competition was held April 3-4 in Columbus, Ohio. The SLU team consisted of first-year M.H.A. students Keenan Al-Hosni, Molly Griffin, and Jake Reed, overseen by faculty advisor Thomas Burroughs, Ph.D.
The OSU case competition is unique as it is geared toward first-year health administration students, while most case competitions are tailored to second-year students. Furthermore, it is fully organized by students through OSU’s Association for Future Healthcare Executives, or AFHE, student group.
Student participants have five weeks to analyze the given case written by a specific health system. Teams spend three weeks preparing a consultant-style presentation with a solution to the case and two weeks on scripting and presentation prep. At the competition, they present their case to health care executives from across the country.
“Balancing work on this case alongside our classes was great practice for effective time management,” team leader Jake Reed said. ”We also really appreciated how supportive the faculty were throughout the whole process.”
The 2025 OSU case centered on identifying sources of waste and low-value care within the Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System. Teams were tasked with developing a data-driven de-implementation that supports both Henry Ford Health and its population health subsidiary, Populace, in advancing their transition toward value-based care. SLU’s solution was a three-prong implementation. The goals included building physician engagement and support, developing an EHR-based implementation that alerts physicians to instances of low-value care, and standardizing the implementation across the entire health system. The team centered their solution on delivering the right care, to the right patient, at the right time.
“The team’s solution was deeply patient-centered, using individual-level data to tailor care that truly meets each patient’s needs,” faculty advisor Burroughs said. “It focused on what benefits the patient's care, and ultimately improved quality of life, reduced anxiety and unnecessary visits, and lowered costs for both the patient and Henry Ford.”
This year’s SLU team advanced to the final round and finished third out of 22 teams. The last time SLU placed at this case competition was in 2019 when SLU took second place. Keenan Al-Hosni also won a Best Presenter award, which was awarded to one student in each preliminary room.
“I couldn’t contain my excitement when we found out we made it to the final round. In fact, I actually punched Jake out of excitement without even realizing, and I even gave Dr. Burroughs a hug,” Al-Hosni said. “It meant so much to me when I saw our team on that list, because it proved that our long days working on this case were truly worth it.”
College for Public Health and Social Justice
The Saint Louis University College for Public Health and Social Justice is the only academic unit of its kind, studying social, environmental and physical influences that together determine the health and well-being of people and communities. It also is the only accredited school or college of public health among nearly 250 Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States. Guided by a mission of social justice and focus on finding innovative and collaborative solutions for complex health problems, the college offers nationally recognized programs in public health and health administration.