Stephen Campbell on Team of "Medical Detectives" that Solved Mystery Diagnosis Challenge

2014 Aug 15

Stephen Campbell, a third-year student in the College of Medicine at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED) from Akron, Ohio, recently served on a team of five students who competed as "medical detectives" in the CrowdMed Spring Case Challenge. The team solved its case, ranking first out of 30 teams among 17 medicine colleges and universities.

The national challenge recruits the help of medicine students to act as detectives and suggest diagnoses for unsolved medical cases. Teams of up to five students from more than 25 countries join a global community of investigators and compete against each other to solve these cases. Patients from around the world submit their cases to CrowdMed, providing detailed reports on their condition. This includes their symptoms, health history, current medications, prior treatments, and excluded diagnoses from physician visits.

The teams discuss potential diagnoses among themselves and with the patient. Each team is given points to "bet" on the diagnoses they think are the most representative of the patient's symptoms. After agreeing to a diagnosis the detectives have the opportunity to explain their reasoning and provide links for references and research that supports their opinion.

In addition to the team's participation, team member William Hardy maintains involvement with the organization as a Medical School Ambassador for the CrowdMed website. He continues to collaborate with the founder, Jared Heyman, and other students across the country to help improve the website and offer solutions to better help patients.

CrowdMed is a venture-backed Silicon Valley startup, based on the idea of health care crowdsourcing. The site brings the opinions and experiences of health care professionals of all stages of training together to collectively suggest diagnoses and solutions for patients. In addition to the challenge, individuals can continue to participate and offer their evidence-based medical suggestions in live cases.

The Spring Case Challenge was held March 1 through May 31, 2014, and was open to students pursuing a Doctor of Medicine or Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree. In addition to NEOMED's success, two separate teams from Harvard Medical School and Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University finished second and third respectively.

For more information regarding CrowdMed visit www.crowdmed.com, or view Hardy's ambassador profile at www.crowdmed.com/ambassador.

Northeast Ohio Medical University is a public, community-based medical university and academic health center with a mission to improve the health and economy of Northeast Ohio. For 40 years, NEOMED has worked in collaboration with its educational, clinical and research partners to successfully train health professionals and medical researchers who serve and impact the region and beyond. The University trains students in a team-based, interprofessional environment and offers doctor of medicine (M.D.) and doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degrees, in addition to master's and doctoral degrees and research opportunities in other medical areas. Still burning bright after 40 years; visit www.neomed.edu/40.