OSF Healthcare Patient Safety Technology Trailblazer

The Patient Safety Technology Trailblazer competition, hosted by OSF Healthcare, a nonprofit Catholic healthcare organization that operates 15 hospitals and other facilities in Illinois and Michigan, announced the winning team to receive $10,000 in December. The $10,000 prize was sponsored by the Patient Safety Technology Challenge with funding from the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative.

The competition invited University of Illinois College of Medicine medical students and OSF residents and fellows to submit ideas about how they can leverage technology, such as: AI, augmented reality, virtual reality, and robotics, to reduce medical errors that harm patients. The winning project was “The New Pill Box: How Artificial Intelligence Can Increase Patient Understanding and Adherence of Their Medications.” Team members included Benjamin Johnson and Itay Solomon.

“Reflecting on my own time as a patient prior to medical school, doctors’ appointments can become overwhelming. It is hard to have every question answered or remember all the instructions. Setting up patients with pill boxes was a common occurrence for individuals on multiple medications who struggled with adherence, however, I thought that there had to be a better way to set these patients up for success given our current advancements in technology,” Winner Benjamin Johnson said.

Johnson continued, “With this in mind, my colleague and I came up with the idea of creating an AI-based tool that will not only help patients keep track of their medications but answer simple questions they may have about their medications. This will hopefully improve patient medication adherence and more importantly, patient outcomes.”

The Patient Safety Technology Challenge is proud to support this event and see the future of the team’s idea.