Even before the pandemic, medical errors were estimated to be the third leading cause of death in the U.S., contributing to 250,000 deaths per year and even more permanent disabilities. While traditional approaches to patient safety have resulted in short-term improvements, these “spot removals” have not yet moved the needle on reducing medical errors in the U.S.

During COVID-19, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention observed further “substantial deterioration” in patient safety metrics. As healthcare systems diverted their attention and resources to pandemic preparedness and response, overwhelmed, exhausted, and eventually diminished frontline teams struggled to follow traditional patient safety methods.

The Patient Safety Technology Challenge is designed to fuel the engagement of students and innovators in identifying solutions and reimagining how to wire healthcare systems for safety, using autonomous technologies. The initiative will inject patient safety awards into existing local, regional, and national competitions, and produce a documentary to help increase awareness of the patient safety crisis.

The World Health Organization defines patient safety as “the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care and the reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum.”

The Challenge is ongoing. The first event kicked off in September 2022 at MedHacks at Johns Hopkins University.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation provided the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative with $325,000 in funding to invest in the Patient Safety Technology Challenge. That money will be spread across as many competitions and events as possible.

Yes, here are a couple real-life examples:

• UPMC, University of Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Mellon University use Artificial Intelligence and Genomic Surveillance to Detect Health Care Infectious Disease Outbreaks

• Using Machine Learning at University of California San Francisco’s (UCSF) to Improve Sepsis Detection

We are open to receiving proposals organizations hosting competitions, challenges, or hackathons, with a focus on early ideation or early-stage start-ups.

Yes, the organizations that receive funding through the Patient Safety Technology Challenge would focus their Patient Safety Awards on one or more of the following five categories of patient harm and injury:

1. Medication-related

2. Medical Complications with Patient Care

3. Procedure/surgery-related

4. Infections

5. Diagnostic Errors

The first four categories are from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Global Trigger Tool (GTT). The Patient Safety Technology Challenge’s Advisory Board added diagnostic error since it is one of the leading causes of preventable patient harm and death across the continuum of care.

We will look to match the prizes that are already being given under the existing structure or your competition or event. For example, if your grand prize is $5,000, we will look to offer a similar amount for the focus on patient safety. Proposals can be submitted on the bottom of the Host an Award page.

If you are selected for funding, we will provide a toolkit with sample messaging, graphics, sample criteria, application questions, and judging rubrics.

Check out the Host an Award page for all the details.

Colleges and universities, non-profit and for-profit companies, industry associations and professional organizations host the patient safety awards within their own competition so there is no submission directly on our website. Please check out the Competitions page to see what you are eligible for now or coming up in the future.

You will apply through competitions and events that are funded by the Patient Safety Technology Challenge. We provide funding directly to colleges, universities, organizations, industry associations, and companies so the award money will be provided through those groups.

Each competition or event will describe whether it is taking place virtually or in-person. We do not organize the competitions and events.

Yes, you may apply to as many competitions as you are eligible. Some competitions and events may be open to the public and be national in scope. Others may be closed off to students, alumni, or members, or limited to a specific geographical area. Please check out the Competitions page to see what is on the calendar. We add new competitions all the time, so please check back and sign up for emails to stay in the loop.