ViTAL 2021–2022 Impact Report
Written by Ellie Hien Nguyen and Melinda Luo
About ViTAL
ViTAL is an interdisciplinary collaborative of Northeastern University students from all academic backgrounds. Students have the opportunity to come together with their shared interest in healthcare, inspiring innovation, entrepreneurship, and exploration of non-traditional paths within the healthcare realm. The name ‘ViTAL’ embodies our mission: to empower the ‘i’, the impact each individual can make. Our events include speaker panels, workshops, and collaboration with other Northeastern organizations.
This academic year, we focused on expanding the current programs, engaging 367 attendees. We continued to publish on our Medium and ViTAL Chats channels, send weekly newsletters to members, connect through Coffee Chats and speaker events, and host challenges through HHIC and VVC.
Our Team
ViTAL is organized into 4 teams: Operations, Marketing, Ventures, and HHIC.
The operations team helps educate and connect our students by hosting speaker events and workshops; they work on increasing community engagement and managing club finances.
The marketing team manages ViTAL’s brand and content through social media, weekly newsletters, website, Medium articles, and ViTAL Chats podcast.
The HHIC team organizes our annual healthcare case competition, Husky Health Innovation Challenge, to increase engagement with the greater healthcare entrepreneurship space among students from Northeastern and other universities within the greater Boston area.
Lastly, the Ventures team leads ViTAL Ventures Consulting, ViTAL’s pro-bono consulting initiative. VVC team works with startups and growth-stage companies within the healthcare field to help clients with product development, data modeling, marketing strategies, and customer insights, all while allowing students to gain hands-on experience in the healthcare consulting field.
Themes & Events
This year, ViTAL‘s’ 6 themes were: HealthTech, Healthcare Disparities, Healthcare Operations, Arts in Healthcare, P4 Medicine, and COVID-19 and Public Health.
Healthtech
Our first theme, Health Tech, explores the intersection between healthcare and technology from both the business and clinical perspectives. Our speakers — Dr. Elizabeth Lamont from Medidata Solutions, Jenn Perkins from Emulate Inc., and Dhruv Vasishtha from Patient Ping — discussed the entrepreneurial opportunities within the field as well as the use of technology at their respective workplaces to improve patient care.
Healthcare Disparities
Next, our Healthcare Disparities speaker event showcased how Flare Capital Partners and Inlighted (represented by Victor Lanio and Shelli Pavone, respectively) balance their profits and their efforts to address healthcare disparities. The speakers explained their shared goal of improving access, delivery, and quality of care while lowering costs — and the impact that effective collaboration with clinicians, innovators, and providers can have towards this goal.
Healthcare Operations
Our Healthcare Operations panel analyzes how hospital teams work together to impact workflow, financial stability, and organizational growth. We invited Aaron Hoffman from Atrius Health and Erin Bartley from Medically Home to share their insights on this field, where they discussed the gaps within healthcare operations that can affect patient care, and potential solutions to mitigate them.
Arts in Healthcare
Following, our Arts in Healthcare theme aimed to dissect the role, future, and misconceptions of the intersection between the arts and the health industry. We were joined by Sarah Cooper from MedRhythms and Dr. Joy Allen from the Berklee College of Music.
P4 Medicine
P4 Medicine represents predictive, preventative, personalized, and participatory care. The speakers for this theme were Dr. Tahir Haque from Biofourmis and Dr. Shaheen Lakhan from Click Therapeutics. They explained how P4 medicine has been integrated into the healthcare industries and our everyday lives, as well as how P4 medicine is transforming patient care and the industries surrounding healthcare, such as HealthTech and consulting.
Covid-19 and Public Health
P4 Medicine represents predictive, preventative, personalized, and participatory care. The speakers for this theme were Dr. Tahir Haque from Biofourmis and Dr. Shaheen Lakhan from Click Therapeutics. They explained how P4 medicine has been integrated into the healthcare industries and our everyday lives, as well as how P4 medicine is transforming patient care and the industries surrounding healthcare, such as HealthTech and consulting.
Our last theme of the year was one that perhaps all of us have had some kind of experience in — Covid-19 and Public Health. Industry leaders James Harper (Sonde Health), Ishan Lala (Drexel University/UPenn), and Jyotsna Mehta (Keva Health) spoke about how the pandemic has changed the healthcare industry. In particular, they discussed the changing public health perspectives within the U.S. and the emerging technologies and fields that have resulted.
Coffee Chats
Coffee Chats enable members of ViTAL to make meaningful connections. This year, members were assigned one coffee chat biweekly, but were encouraged to reach out as often as they would like to get to know the entire team. Overall, there were a total of 188 coffee chat pairings!
ViTAL Inspire Program
To support members in navigating through ViTAL, Northeastern, and the healthcare industry in general, we launched the ViTAL Inspire Program (VIP). VIP is a mentorship program where first and second years are paired with upperclassmen. This year, there were a total of 28 pairings.
Community Service
To expand impact beyond the Northeastern community, ViTAL also held 3 community service events, supporting the Greater Boston Food Bank, Project HEAL, and Fenway Cares. We raised a total of $856 for the fundraisers and gathered volunteers to help at the food bank.
Marketing
ViTAL introduced a new logo and color scheme that reflected our vision for the year. With that, we also renovated our website (be sure to check it out if you have not!), and of course, remained active on social media. We posted 51 new Instagram posts and gained 208 new followers.
Additionally, we released 3 new podcasts on ViTAL Chats (E-Board Spotlight, Anti-Asian Hate — What Pharmacists Need to Know, and an Alumni Spotlight). We also published 3 additional Medium articles: Can Virtual Visits Replace In-Person Visits? The History of Pandemics and Its Possible Impact on Improving Public Health Outcomes; and Q&A: Who is HSE?
Husky Health Innovation Challenge
Founded in 2018, HHIC is the first healthcare-focused competition open to all undergraduate students in the Boston-area. Students are challenged to propose innovative health solutions to a salient issue in healthcare.
The 2022 HHIC theme was Caregiver Burnout in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes Patients. More specifically, the teams competed virtually to provide solutions for Pediatric Caregiver Burden X Digital Health. We initially held 2 workshops to prepare teams for the competition: the first on Healthcare Venture Product and Value (in collaboration with EVOLVE), and the second on Basic Business Concepts and Financial Projections (in collaboration with CASE). Students worked in teams to create and present the solutions to 1st-round judges, then finalists presented a pitch deck to final round judges for monetary prizes.
Overall, there were a total of 42 participants from 4 different universities in the Greater Boston area. Our 7 sponsors — AARC Innovation Labs, J&J, MeHI, Northeastern Alumni Relations, Khoury, Bouve, and CoE — enabled the competition.
ViTAL Venture Consulting
ViTAL Venture Consulting (VVC) is a student-led pro-bono consulting initiative that gives undergraduates the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and impact critical business decisions at startups and growth-stage companies. This year, VVC gained 7 associate consultants. Our engagement managers and associate consultants were split up into two teams and were each assigned a company to work with, WELT or Tembo Health.
WELT is a healthcare startup developing digital therapeutics. The organization analyzes digital biomarkers to manufacture personalized treatments for patients.
Tembo Health is a digital platform delivering 24/7 care to seniors, partnering with senior care centers, retirement homes, and nursing facilities. Each VVC team dedicated their time, knowledge, and effort into understanding the businesses and devising actionable recommendations for their clients!
Thank You…
For another great year of ViTAL! We enjoyed seeing everyone at our events and appreciate the time and participation you all put in. We can’t wait to see how ViTAL, as well as our members, continues to grow in the coming years.
https://issuu.com/vitalnortheastern/docs/vital_2022-23_impact_report_1_
