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Page 21
Campus Review
May 7, 2013
Bram Boroson Places High in
Heritage Health Prize Competition
by Samantha Watson, University Relations
Faculty & Staff Participate in Lose to Win
Incentive Program Hosted by Recreation & Wellness
Approximately 30 Clayton State
University faculty and staff members
recently participated in Recreation &
Wellness’ Lose to Win Incentive program.
The program was designed to encourage
Clayton State faculty and staff to partici-
pate in daily physical activity and gain an
understanding of the basic American
College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
physical activity recommendations. The
primary purpose of the program is to
encourage faculty and staff to achieve a
healthy weight and in an effort to enhance
their overall health. Participants were
encouraged to engage in daily physical
activity and reach the minimum exercise
recommendations established by the
ACSM (150 minutes /week).
From January to April, teams of four
Clayton State employees competed to see
who could earn the most loss points by
calculating the average weight in pounds
and centimeters lost by each team mem-
ber. Bonus loss points were awarded for
attending The Weight of the Nation
Screening Event held on Jan. 29.
Participants received an initial and final
assessment consisting of weigh-in and cir-
cumference measurements. Body fat per-
centage was also calculated during the ini-
tial and final assessments as an additional
measure of progress, but was not factored
in to the total score for the competition.
Total losses were calculated based on an
average of the team members’ inches and
pounds lost from the initial to the final
assessment.
The 2013 Lose to Win Faculty/Staff
Incentive Program winning team was
comprised of Ben Hopkins, Jeslin
Harrigan, and Felisha Whitehead. Their
Clayton State University Assistant
Professor of Physics Dr. Bram
Boroson has branched out again.
Known on campus as the “man for all
seasons,” Boroson has extended his
role from physicist to award-winning
journalist, mathematician, philoso-
pher, and now to data analyst.
On Apr. 4 2011, Boroson began par-
ticipation in a two-year competition,
held by Heritage Provider Network in
California, entitled the Heritage
Health Prize. The president and CEO
of Heritage Provider Network, Dr.
Richard Merkin, implemented this
competition in hopes of making
Americans more healthy and the
American health care system more effi-
cient.
“The contest took a lot of work over a
long time. Approaches to ‘Big Data’ are of
growing importance in many fields. I
learned a tremendous amount during the
competition,” states Boroson.
Aspiring to fix a dilemma familiar to most
health care executives, Merkin decided to
award $3 million to anyone who could
build the algorithm that best predicts
which patients will be hospitalized and for
how many days over the course of a year.
Boroson, operating solely on his own,
placed 82 out of 1659 teams, of which
most were comprised of several mem-
bers. The winner, along with the top
10, will be announced on June 3, 2013.
“Considering many who entered the
competition had experience with the
health care field and training in statis-
tical analysis, I think my placement in
the top 5 percent was really good,”
comments Boroson, “In the very last
week I moved up 295 places in the
public ranking… I was learning right
up to the end.”
The competition was based on a given
data set, created by Heritage, com-
Lose to Win winners
Ben Hopkins, Jeslin
Harrigan, and
Felisha Whitehead
Lose to Win, cont’d. p. 22
Boroson, cont’d. p. 22