Liu wins Health Equity Innovation Award alongside UTHealth Houston student peers
From left: Kaitlyn Liu, Katherine Joseph, Julie Park, and Vanshika Jhonsa received accolades at the CLARION 2026 competition.
Kaitlyn Liu, a second-year dental student at UTHealth Houston School of Dentistry, received national recognition at the 2026 CLARION National Case Competition, receiving the Health Equity Innovation Award as part of her interprofessional student team from across different UTHealth Houston institutions.
Liu collaborated with peers from McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and the School of Public Health to develop strategies addressing barriers patients face across the colorectal cancer continuum. The team’s work emphasized health equity, prevention, and collaborative care, areas where dentistry continues to play in an increasingly vital role in whole-patient health.
Hosted April 17-18 by the University of Minnesota CLARION Student Board, the annual competition brought together 11 teams and 40 students from universities nationwide to solve complex health care challenges from a variety of perspectives.
For Liu, participation in the competition underscored the importance of dentistry’s role within the broader healthcare system.
By contributing a dental perspective, she helped the team consider how oral health settings can serve as access points for patient education, early risk identification, and referrals, particularly for underserved populations.
The award marks the third time in four years that a UTHealth Houston team has been recognized at the national competition, highlighting the university’s continued commitment to interprofessional education.
The winning team also included Rebekah J. Park and Vanshika Jhonsa of McGovern Medical School, and Katherine Joseph of the School of Public Health. Their work was guided by faculty coaches from across the institution and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
Each year, the UTHealth Houston Center for Interprofessional Collaboration sponsors a student team for the CLARION competition, reinforcing its mission to prepare future health professionals, including dental students like Liu, to work collaboratively in advancing patient care and health equity.