Hack-a-Startup
Relayd Team Members (left to right): Sai Charan Emmadi, Austin Lignell, Dr. Shubhaa Chawla, Abiraami Rakshana, and Neharika Srivastav (photo provided by Carnegie Mellon University)
Hack-a-Startup 2024 was hosted and run by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship. The competition, which took place from November 2-16, was an immersive event tailored exclusively for the CMU student community. Unlike most hackathons, Hack-a-Startup spanned two weeks and offered support to student startups, guiding them every step of the way. This included aiding participants in finding the right team members and connecting them with industry mentors.
Team Relayd won the Patient Safety Technology Challenge-sponsored cash prize of $1,000, as well as 2nd place in the overall competition landing them $3,500 in total prize money. Relayd team members include Abiraami Rakshana, Dr. Shubhaa Chawla, Austin Lignell, Sai Charan Emmadi, and Neharika Srivastav. Relayd team members brought skillsets from their various backgrounds, which include product and service design, medicine, business, data science, agile product management, and AI.
Relayd revolutionizes nursing workflows through leveraging large language models and AI-driven insights. It uses cross-modal documentation, structured handoffs, and efficient workflows to empower nurses and reduce their administrative burden, thereby improving patient care and making handoffs seamless. The team is “actively partnering with hospitals, industry leaders, and technology innovators to refine our solution and ensure it addresses real-world challenges effectively.”
Relayd team members also bring their own stories and experiences to the table, which has informed their work. Dr. Chawla served as a frontline worker throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and recalled one particularly impactful memory. She witnessed a healthy patient lose their life due to a preventable medical error, an incorrect blood transfusion. She said, “Moments like these have left a lasting impression on me and strengthened my commitment to addressing these issues. No patient should suffer due to preventable errors and systemic improvements and innovations in healthcare are essential to ensure safety and trust in medical care.”
Srivastav’s interest in patient safety and medical errors “grew out of my firsthand experience building solutions that reduce friction in complex workflows.” Thinking about the impact of structured processes on reducing errors and improving outcomes, Srivastav began to “think critically about how similar principles could apply in healthcare—an industry where the stakes are immeasurably higher.” In addition to a professional interest, Srivastav takes a personal interest in patient safety, as a miscommunication during a shift handoff while her grandfather was hospitalized for a treatable condition led to a delay in his care, and ultimately contributed to his passing. Srivastav said, “Losing him to something preventable was a turning point in my life—it made me acutely aware of the gaps in healthcare workflows and the profound impact they can have on families. Relayd is my way of honoring my grandfather’s memory and ensuring that no one else has to experience a loss due to preventable errors.” The team’s next steps surround scaling Relayd to create a broader impact across the healthcare ecosystem.
Planwise Team Members (left to right): Jacinto Suner, Aimee Langevin, Ethan Hilton, Max Hsiao, Amine Bouayad, and Anshika Agarwal (photo provided by Jacinto Suner)
Team Planwise won 1st place in the overall competition and was a finalist in the Patient Safety Technology Challenge. Planwise Team Members include Jacinto Suner, Aimee Langevin, Ethan Hilton, Max Hsiao, Amine Bouayad, and Anshika Agarwal. They developed Planwise, which is an AI-driven platform that leverages patient data and research to generate evidence-based treatment plans, with the goal of promoting transparency, efficiency, and standardization within the dental sector. Suner’s motivation to improve transparency and reliability in healthcare came after “a close relative endured months of unclear and highly variable treatments, leaving our family lost in the dark and deeply frustrated.” The team plans to participate in more competitions, advance the development of their product, and involve both dentists and patients in the process to refine and improve it through continuous feedback.
Amanda Manget, CMU Hack-a-Startup Co-Director, reflected on her experiences with Patient Safety Technology Challenge, saying, "As last year’s Patient Safety Technology Challenge winner and this year’s Hack-a-Startup co-director, working with PRHI and Ariana Longley has been a delight. Her impactful workshop on patient safety inspired over a quarter of participants to pitch related startup ideas, with two of the four teams making it to our top three—a powerful testament to the importance of healthcare innovation!"
Check out these Pittsburgh Startup News articles about this event: read this article to learn more about the finalists, and read this article to learn more about the winners and about the Hack-a-Startup competition.
