Redefining the healthcare industry at Optum Stratethon Season 2 Grand Finale

The year 2020 has clearly elucidated what Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Health is the real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.” Optum however with a vision to create a healthier world has always focused on one insight, one connection, and one person at a time. Following its explicit ideology, Optum Stratethon has continued to meet the brightest minds, places and ideas across the healthcare ecosystem. For highlighting the successes of the day, we bring to you the summary of Optum Stratethon Season 2 Grand Finale.

Witnessing the registration of 10,000+ students, a rise of 78% in comparison to the numbers of last year, Optum Stratethon Season 2 marked a grand closing to its 2-month fulfilling odyssey on 11th December 2020. It took a bigger and bolder step this year to extend its reach geographically and invited 132 colleges across India, Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. After funnelling down registrants from 10,000+ registrations, only 6% passed the qualifying round and around 600 students found a spot in the preliminary round, out of which only 5% or 30 students made it to the Grand finale of Optum Stratethon Season 2.

This year, the competition was open to 2-year full-time MBA/PGDM students and full-time B.Tech/B.E. students from select B-Schools and Engineering colleges, across specializations. With a case study revolving around the theme "IoT for Smart Healthcare", Optum Stratethon Season 2 was artistically divided into a number of rounds. 

The challenge began with the first preliminary round that consisted of a simulation and guesstimate quiz for B-Schoolers and an online coding challenge for engineering students. For the second preliminary round, the B-track students were required to submit a detailed presentation while the ones from E-track had to submit their idea. This round was followed by a virtual presentation round, especially for B-School students. 

Post a brief mentorship period, the 10 national finalists that comprised 5 teams from each track paved their way into the grand finale where they got an opportunity to present their ideas and solutions to Optum's Senior Leadership team. The jury panel comprised distinguished people from the Optum team. 

For the Business Case, Erlyn Joan Chua - VP, General Management; Vijay Cherukuri - VP, Technology; Rain Tan - VP, Human Capital; Ujwal Tickoo - VP, Product Management; and Subu Boyinapalli - Senior Director, Advisory Services, graced the panel with their presence. The panel for E-track was honoured by Manoj Kapoor - VP, Technology; Varun Vig - VP, Operations; Phani Challa - VP, Software Engineering; Anupam Gupta - VP, Data Science; and Alind Sharma - VP, Human Capital. 

The curtains for the one of its kind virtual grand finale opened with a warm welcome address given by Ms Freya, Head - Talent Acquisition, Philippines. Along with a wild card entry, the top 6 teams that earned the golden opportunity to present their ideas in front of the jury were Team iTamaraws from Far Eastern University Institute of Technology, Team Infersome from DTU, Team Troubleshooters from VIT, Team HATCHBACK from SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Team 32_Bits from JU and Team Noobs from BIT Mesra. 

Once the presentations of E-track students ended, the finale unveiled a quick quiz for the audience, based on Optum, which was followed by the presentations of B-track students. The teams that were fortunate to make it to the grand finale were Team Strategos Tso's from NTU, Singapore, Team Smokin Trees Strokin 3s from XIMB Bhubaneswar, Team AIM HIGH PINOY from AIM, Philippines, Team Hustlers from SPJIMR Mumbai, Team Keen n krafty from IIM Kozhikode and Team Titans from NTU, Singapore. 

The solutions presented by teams spanned across a variety of domains, taking into consideration a number of crucial factors. From unique and innovative to realistic solutions with holistic approaches to tackle the challenges at hand, the ideas put forth took care of all critical aspects in the healthcare system. But amidst all finalists, only four teams managed to lay hands on the winning titles.

After considerable deliberation amongst themselves, the jury declared four winners from the two tracks. From the Business case track, Team Smokin Trees Strokin 3s from XIMB Bhubaneswar grabbed the Runners Up place while Team Strategos Tso's from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore emerged victorious as National Winners. 

In the E-track segment, Team Troubleshooters from VIT, Vellore held the Runners Up position while Team Infersome from DTU, Delhi played their cards well to grab the first place and thus were crowned as National Winners. The winners were awarded cash prizes and pre-placement interviews. Apart from these, a number of awards like the Discover Wellness, Audience Choice, Living Our Values, Star of the Show and Strength in Numbers were handed out to students and colleges respectively. 

With a unique, unparalleled challenge, Optum, the world’s leading health care products and services innovation company, gave students from engineering and B-School an idea of the direction that they must think in to bring about a change. The Season 2 of Optum Stratethon came to a glorious end, leaving the audience as well as participants with a lingering thought of what the future would actually look like for the healthcare sector in the days, months and years to come.