Bench to Bedside (B2B)
From left to right: Amanda Lematty (organizer), Josh Whiting, Diego Perez, Ziaul Karim, Taylor Yseth, Dr. Mike Woodruff (judge), Alicia Du, and Dr. McHale Anderson. (Photo provided by: Bench to Bedside)
Utah’s premier healthcare innovation competition, Bench to Bedside (B2B), hosted by the University of Utah Health’s Center for Medical Innovation, partnered with the Patient Safety Technology Challenge with funding from the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative. Thanks to the partnership, for the second year in a row, patient safety was emphasized by encouraging students to solve one of the five leading patient safety challenges facing health care delivery with a prize of $10,000 offered to the team that developed the best tech-enabled solution.
The program kicked off in September with patient safety experts being invited to “Networking with Experts” events in November 2023 and February 2024 to link students with subject matter experts.
The B2B Competition Night took place at the Utah State Capital building in Salt Lake City on April 8, 2024. Judges Dr. David Classen, Dr. Jason Funderburk, Dr. Jon White, and Dr. Mike Woodruff in attendance to view the projects and select the winning team.
Clock Code won the $10,000 prize at B2B for its innovation to optimize care and communication among code team members in the setting of an in-hospital cardiac arrest. The device aims to improve patient survival by improving communication. Team members included University of Utah students: Ziaul Karim, Josh Whiting, Diego Perez, Dr. McHale Anderson, and Alicia Du.
“As a cardiology fellow at the University of Utah, I experience systematic issues with patient care and safety on a daily basis. Patients that suffer from cardiac arrest in the hospital have very poor outcomes, almost as poor as those that arrest outside of the hospital. The reality of how hospitals prepare for these events is a 'call team' that, when a code blue is alarmed, assembles rapidly in the patient's room. Almost always this 'call team' has never met the patient, any of the other team members, or even the patient's nurse in the hospital. What is asked of providers is to assemble the team rapidly in high functioning, calm, closed-loop fashion while balancing data gathering about the patient, while also following a very strict, timely algorithm for running a code blue in the hospital. It is quite simply, too much to handle. It is stressful, things are forgotten, we lose track of time, and everyone frantically raises their voice - which creates an even more chaotic environment,” Clock Code team member Dr. McHale Anderson explained. “Our device is simple - it is a clock that takes care of the ACLS algorithm for the provider and provides clinical nudges to keep us on track while we spend the rest of our time actually thinking about the specific patient in front of us. While doing this, it also allows team members to assign themselves roles - which streamlines the communication in the room.”
Of the event and the continued partnership between the Patient Safety Technology Challenge and B2B, organizer Amanda Lematty said, “Working with the Patient Safety Challenge group was great for our teams – it gave them an opportunity to articulate exactly how their innovation improves healthcare outcomes, improves upon current solutions, and leads to better patient care.”
Read more about Bench to Bedside here.