Riley Lawson and Larissa Mazzocca have won Humber Polytechnic's 2026 Map the System competition for their research examining the systemic factors contributing to delays in endometriosis diagnosis in Canada.
The Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences students, who are both enrolled in the Research Analyst graduate certificate program, will now represent Humber at the Map the System Global Finals hosted by the University of Oxford from July 9 to 12.
More than 200 students from 41 programs across all six faculties participated in this year's competition, making it one of Humber's most competitive years yet.
Their award-winning project, The Cost of Waiting: A Systems Analysis of Diagnostic Delay in Endometriosis in Canada, examined how health-care systems, gender bias in medicine and research inequities contribute to delays in diagnosing endometriosis in Canada.
The research also explored the impact of delayed diagnoses on patients and the Canadian economy.
The idea for the project took shape after Lawson and Mazzocca noticed more women sharing stories online about years of pain, dismissal and difficulty receiving diagnoses, sparking their interest in examining inequities within the health-care system.
"After repeatedly seeing these posts, I couldn't ignore them, and I thought to myself, Something's going on here,'" said Mazzocca.
The pair said they hope their research encourages more conversations around women's health, patient advocacy and the barriers many individuals face when seeking care.
"The diagnostic delay of endometriosis highlights what the health-care system prioritizes and, more importantly, what it does not," said Lawson.
In addition to winning the overall competition, the team also received the Library Award for Research and Storytelling and the Audience Choice Award for Best Presentation.
Humber Polytechnic was the first polytechnic to participate in the global competition and has remained the largest institutional participant in Map the System worldwide for the past three years.
