We are pleased to announce that Sahil Sandhu, a medical student at Harvard Medical School, has been selected to receive the annual Fletcher Prize in Population Medicine. In his winning submission, “Electronic Patient-reported Outcomes: The Missing Link in Population Health Efforts,” he proposes that in addition to supporting the patient-clinician encounter, electronic patient-reported outcomes provide an opportunity to drive care transformation through learning health system efforts and payment reform.

Electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) are self-reported data points about a patient's experience collected either at the point of care, or remotely via avenues such as apps, patient portals, or text. Sahil was first drawn to the topic of ePROs as an undergraduate at Duke University, where he led a study evaluating their feasibility and implementation into routine cancer care. His contest submission focuses on how these data are an untapped means of "driving real-world improvements at the patient- and population-level." He says, "I believe that ePROs provide a concrete way to elevate the patient voice to help make health care delivery much more patient-centered."

He learned about the Fletcher Prize in Population Medicine opportunity through the Essentials I course at Harvard Medical School. Led by DPM faculty, Essentials is a component of the HMS curriculum that combines the teaching of core skills of clinical epidemiology as they apply to the care of individuals and populations with an introduction to key public and population health topics. Medical students explore how factors beyond the four walls of the clinic influence individual and population health, from the regulation of health care markets to the contributions of the social determinants of health. "The class encouraged me to think about how I could better connect my experiences with frontline health care delivery with broader population health efforts, quality measurements systems, and value-based payment reform, which is what I tried to do for this piece," Sahil says.

Congratulations!

The class encouraged me to think about how I could better connect my experiences with frontline health care delivery with broader population health efforts, quality measurements systems, and value-based payment reform, which is what I tried to do for this piece.

 

About the Fletcher Prize in Population Medicine

The Fletcher Prize, named for Department of Population Professors Emeriti Suzanne and Robert Fletcher, who are national leaders in advancing the field of clinical epidemiology, is awarded by the Department for the best paper on a topic in Population Medicine written by a Harvard Medical School or Harvard School of Dental Medicine student. Papers are judged by an expert panel of DPM faculty and awarded with a $1000 prize. Learn more about the Fletcher Prize.

About the 2023 Fletcher Prize in Population Medicine Winner

Sahil Sandhu is an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School and a Samvid Scholar. He is also a Foster Scholar at the Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital. He completed his self-designed bachelor’s degree in health innovation at Duke University. He studied the use of evidence-based practice to design, implement, and evaluate new health innovations, from artificial intelligence tools to new value-based payment models. He then completed his master’s in health services research at Newcastle University as a US-UK Fulbright Scholar, where he evaluated models to integrate health and social services. His work has resulted in over two dozen peer-reviewed publications in journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Internal Medicine, and Academic Medicine. Working at the intersection of clinical medicine, care delivery transformation, and health policy, Sahil aspires to become a physician committed to building a stronger and more equitable healthcare system.