HackSC-X

Phil Martie hosting the Patient Safety Technology Challenge workshop at HackSC-X.

At this year’s HackSC-X, held at the University of Southern California on November 4-5, the patient safety vertical received the most submissions of any track. A total of 19 projects were judged to receive the grand prize, Amazon Gift cards worth $1,400 for the team to share, sponsored by the Patient Safety Technology Challenge with funding from the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI).

The Patient Safety Technology Challenge held a Patient Safety 101 workshop for attendees led by Phil Martie, founder and CEO of Nicolette. In his presentation, Martie shared his dedication to patient safety began when his wife gave birth to micro-preemie twins, Nicolette and Bexley. Nicolette experienced some issues that Phil and his wife Jude raised but were not taken seriously. Nicolette did not survive. Phil went on to develop a tech-enabled patient empowerment and provider partnership tool to ensure this wouldn't happen to any other family.

"Phil's talk clearly inspired the hackers on-site," said Ariana Longley, PRHI Patient Safety Consultant and judge for HackSC. Serena Li, the HackSC organizer, agreed, saying ‘it was heartwarming to see the teams ask Phil so many questions after the workshop he led.’”

The best patient safety technology at HackSC-X and the winner of the patient safety vertical was MedVisio-on. MedVisio-on acts as a supplementary cognitive resource and additional set of eyes for perioperative nurses which allow them to better monitor equipment, alleviate their mental workload, and enable them to concentrate on the surgical procedure. Simultaneously, it was designed to diminish the avoidable risk of Retained Surgical Bodies (RSBs), like scalpels and sponges.

MedVisio-on team member, Natalie Chang, a computer science student at the University of Southern California, shared MedVisio-on was, “inspired by the high stakes involved in RSB cases, where foreign bodies left inside patients’ post-operation can lead to severe harm, our solution aims to reduce preventable risks, lower morbidity and mortality rates, and ultimately save patient lives.” 

Expanding on the workings of MedVisio-on, Chang said, “MedVisio-on operates as a dual system, incorporating both a meticulous tracking application and an integrated camera system. This camera system uses services such as Amazon AWS for medical object detection, enhancing healthcare by enabling the identification of essential medical objects. This integration provides invaluable support for medical professionals in their tasks, particularly during surgery.

“By reducing the cognitive load on perioperative nurses and providing a meticulous tracking system, MedVisio-on enhances patient safety, addresses the limitations of existing solutions, and significantly improves health outcomes in surgical settings.”