College of Veterinary Medicine DVM student Afra Suri and her teammates recently won the ninth annual Global Health Case Competition, organized by the University of Minnesota Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility.

More than 50 student participants from 13 University of Minnesota schools or colleges participated in the competition, which tasked teams with analyzing the real-life situation and proposing solutions to develop sustainable and scalable initiatives, examining both reduction and treatment strategies. This year's competition focused on the case of a fictionalized young woman in Ethiopia who experienced obstructed labor resulting in obstetric fistula, a traumatic injury to their bladder, vagina and/or rectum. 

Suri's multidisciplinary team included both graduate and undergraduate student participants. Her team members were Sarah Fenno (Medical School), Nick Hable (Medical School), Sophia Park (College of Biological Sciences), and Amal Suri (College of Biological Sciences). The team was coached by Corrie Fielder of the Carlson School of Management.

Taking the top spot means the team has a chance to participate in Emory University's international Global Health Case Competition, to be held later this year.