More than two dozen University of Houston students participated in a Shark Tank-style competition as part of the fifth annual Summer Health Research Program, sponsored by UH's Humana Institute. This three-week program provided interdisciplinary teams with an opportunity to collaborate and present innovative health care solutions to industry experts.
Dr. Lola Adepoju, director of the Humana Institute at UH, highlighted the program's goal: "The Summer Health Research Program let students take on some of today’s most urgent health care challenges with fresh, innovative thinking using real-world data." Students from various colleges within the university formed teams to tackle issues such as mitigating disruptions in health care during disasters, enhancing advocacy for sickle cell disease, improving home-based dementia care, strengthening HIV services, and bolstering the rural health care workforce.
The competition saw each team utilize data from the Humana Institute to develop and pitch practical solutions. The panel of judges included Richard Ebern, Lisa Spivey, Dr. Adelola Ashaye, Dr. Renita Madu, Eric Rinard, and Dr. Imran Ahmed.
The top honors were awarded to a team focusing on home-based dementia care. Team member Abigayle Hoeft expressed her enthusiasm: "Winning the competition was never our goal, but it gives us the opportunity to continue this research."
Peterkings Jokoh shared his experience working on sickle cell disease solutions: "SHERP was a unique opportunity to collaborate with a diverse group on real-world scenarios."
Reflecting on SHERP's impact, Adepoju emphasized its importance: "While only one team was named the winner, every student has encouraged us to think bigger."