Students at the University of Notre Dame are working together to leverage data to investigate the impacts of the opioid crisis, maternal morbidity, racial inequity and other vexing health obstacles.

The Health Equity Data Science Challenge, launched in Fall 2024, debuted an interdisciplinary opportunity for students to create and investigate a novel, data-driven question in health equity. The challenge, co-hosted by the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society and the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, received project submissions from almost thirty undergraduate students from various majors at Notre Dame.

During the month-long challenge, graduate mentors worked with the students to develop research questions that could be analyzed with real-world datasets. The datasets included opioid transactions from the ARCOS database, public inpatient records from the state of Indiana and health insurance pricing data from April and May 2024.

In November, eight student teams presented their research findings to a panel of distinguished academia and industry judges. The teams were scored on methodology, question design, discussion of results and evaluation of error or bias.

The winning project, “Bridging the Gaps: Examining the Effects of New York Law I-STOP on Opioid Distribution Across Counties,” examined the effects of the New York 2012 legislation, Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP) and focused on social inequalities that can influence health outcomes. The results of the research suggest that while statewide trends for opioid prescriptions have decreased, an increase in several New York counties might be due to limited access to primary healthcare facilities or a higher proportion of residents with diabetes who require chronic pain management.

Many of the participants emphasized the transformative power of working with team members from different departments and diverse backgrounds.

“I have minimal experience in coding, and I worried about how I could meaningfully contribute,” said Nicole Aguirre ‘26. Aguirre, who was part of the winning team, is studying philosophy with a minor in constitutional studies. “As a student in the College of Arts and Letters, I initially felt out of my depth. However, my group always made me feel valued, and as we progressed and began uncovering results, my strengths as an analyzer and critical thinker proved essential in shaping a comprehensive approach to effectively studying how social determinants of health intersect with opioid policies to shape health outcomes.”

The runner-ups were, “The Opioid Crisis in Eastern Tennessee by Josh Williams and Brandon Hulse and, “Coal, Crisis, and Recovery: Examining the Impact of Coal on Opioid Addiction in West Virginia” by Toni Akintola, Julienne Angtuaco and Louis Cornett.

Cassy White, manager of community health outcomes at Beacon Health Systems, was a judge for the challenge. At the event, she reflected on the impact of data in telling stories. “One of the datasets included in the challenge offered an opportunity for students to delve into the dimensions of patient demographics. In the future, the newly collected Z-codes – the diagnosis codes that are specific to social drivers of health – can enhance further exploration into the data that formulate stories to represent the lives of individual people,” she said.

Other judges included Josie Fasoldt, director of data and AnalytiXIN for the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, Christopher Frederick, assistant teaching professor in the University of Notre Dame Department of Applied and Computational Mathematics and Statistics, Peter Krombach, deputy chief data officer for the Indiana Department of Health, Ketan Paranjape, chief operating officer of enterprise imaging for Optum Health and Peter VanOverbeke, managing director at Accenture.

The organizing committee for the Health Equity Data Science Challenge included Prakash Nallathamby, associate director for the Berthiaume Institute, Mary Mumbi Wachira, program director of the Health Equity Data Lab in the Lucy Family Institute, Katie Liu, assistant director of research programs in the Lucy Family Institute and Simon Weaver, a Lucy Graduate Scholar and current doctoral student in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program.

“Our first Health Equity Data Science Challenge exemplifies the power of collaboration between disciplines to address complex societal challenges. By partnering with the Lucy Family Institute, we are creating distinct opportunities for students to leverage data science in addressing health equity, fostering innovative solutions to problems central to our University’s mission, and inspiring a new generation of diversely skilled leaders,” said Matt Webber, acting director of the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health.

“The Health Equity Data Science Challenge represents the interdisciplinary potential of artificial intelligence for advancing health and well-being for all,” said Nitesh Chawla, founding director of the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society. “Through partnerships across campus and within our local communities, we are building bridges to critically analyze real-world societal challenges, leveraging data and artificial intelligence as a force for good.”

For more information about the Health Equity Data Science Challenge, please visit the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society website.

Contact:

Christine Grashorn, Program Director, Engagement and Strategic Storytelling
Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society / University of Notre Dame
cgrashor@nd.edu / 574.631.4856
lucyinstitute.nd.edu / @lucy_institute

About the Lucy Family Institute for Data & Society

Guided by Notre Dame’s Mission, the Lucy Family Institute adventurously collaborates on advancing data-driven and artificial intelligence (AI) convergence research, translational solutions, and education to ethically address society’s wicked problems. As an innovative nexus of academia, industry, and the public, the Institute also fosters data science and AI access to strengthen diverse and inclusive capacity building within communities.