SCAN Health has partnered with HIMSS and the Odette School of Business at the University of Windsor to provide students from around the world an opportunity to showcase their knowledge and skills to create innovative solutions for Canada’s healthcare system during the SCAN Health Virtual Business Case Competition.
Over fifty teams from all over the world competed to advise the Government of Canada on the development of a coordinated healthcare supply chain to support health systems in sourcing critical supplies such as personal protective equipment (PPE) in order to enhance healthcare capacity, safety and resilience while managing the impact of COVID-19.
EADA’s team, which was selected in the top 12 teams for the final round, was made up of participants from the Master in Pharma & Biotechnology Management and the Master in Management: Sofia Margarita (Venezuela), Elias Rahme (Lebanon), Amira Zerrouki (Algeria) and Sebastian Rudloff (Germany).
Can you describe the SCAN Health Virtual Business Case Competition?
Sofia & Elias: The SCAN Health competition was about finding innovative supply chain solutions for healthcare. This year, the case focused on finding solutions for the Canadian Government regarding PPE procurement during the COVID-19 crisis. This topic was meaningful for our team and motivated us to participate in the competition.
Our solution can have a real impact on how a country operates during a pandemic and how it manages PPE, improving health services for both healthcare professionals and patients.
How did you prepare for the competition?
Elias & Amira: We were so excited about the challenge that we jumped right in! We chose our team, decided on the roles each team member would assume and applied to participate.
During the competition, we put all of our efforts into creating the best proposal that we could. We believed that our solution could have a real impact on how a country operates during a pandemic and how it manages PPE, improving health services for both HCP (healthcare professionals) and patients.
What was the most challenging part of the competition?
Amira & Sebastian: For us, timing was the most challenging aspect. We had to manage the time we allocated to our studies including assignments, team projects, case preparations and our final project as well as the time we needed for the SCAN Competition. All of this while taking into account very tight deadlines.
One other big challenge was learning about supply chain techniques and frameworks, finding the relevant data and becoming experts in the PPE market.
We saw how important it is to have a multifunctional team with different backgrounds to exchange ideas and learn from each other.
What was your biggest takeaway?
Sebastian & Sofia: We learned that no challenge is a match for our business skills and our combined background experience. We also saw how important it is to have a multifunctional team with different backgrounds to exchange ideas and learn from each other. On a technical level, we have learnt a lot about supply chain management and the PPE market.
