As part of the University of South Carolina’s 2022 National Big Data Health Science Conference, UofSC Big Data Health Science Center (BDHSC) held the 3rd Annual Big Data Health Science Case Competition virtually on February 4-6, 2022.

In its third year, the competition attracted 17 teams from 10 major universities in the U.S. including

• University of South Carolina,
• Boston University,
• College of Charleston,
• Oklahoma State University,
• Oregon Institute of Technology,
• University of Connecticut,
• University of Minnesota Duluth,
• Temple University, and
• Yale University.

This year’s challenge focused on solving inappropriate hospitalizations using a data analytics approach. Each participating team analyzed the case and datasets. They have been provided with the international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD-10) codes for ACSCs. Competitors were also provided data that contains all information about statewide inpatient hospitalizations for calendar years 2016,2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. Moreover, each team was given 24 hours to devise a solution for the case (February 5th [1st round] and 6th, 2022 [finals]. During this period, the teams were asked to identify the true proportion of false hospitalizations occurring overall and during each year in the data and to provide the parameter (s) or decision rules that guide this classification. The teams implemented their best algorithm in a hospital setting to help the hospital avoid inappropriate hospitalizations. Each team presentation was judged by a panel of three to seven judges. These judges were composed of 14 representatives from industry and academia.

Max Griffin, Srishti Srivastava, and Kalbe Agharia from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, won the top prize of $4,000. The second-place prize of $3,000 was awarded to Hoa Vo, Lynde Lutzow, and Josh Carleton from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, while Daniel Pak, Yaroslav Markov, and Vimig Socrates from Yale University, New Haven, CT, won the third-place prize of $2,000.

Additionally, the teams of Channing Smith, Ben Gonzalez, and Molly Moloney from the College of Charleston, and Madhusree Chowdhury, Haneesha Balireddy, and Ping-Hsuan Chiang from the University of Connecticut received honorable mentions and a $500 prize for their participation as finalists at the 2022 Big Data Health Science Virtual Student Case Competition.