Think about your smartphone.
I rarely leave home without it. We have a team dedicated to making sure your device is upgraded and meant for you.
But according to Karen Wolk Feinstein, there really isn’t a dedicated team dedicated to ensuring healthcare is safer for patients and workers working in the best possible conditions.
“Certainly at the federal level, we do not have a dedicated team addressing patient safety and exploring the state-of-the-art opportunities to create that safety net,” Feinstein said Friday at Carnegie Mellon University. is President and CEO of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative, a division of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, and also serves as President and CEO.
“We have a lot of people leaving clinical care, hospital settings, nurses, doctors. she said.
For years, southwestern Pennsylvania has touted its reputation as a hub of “medicine, education, and technology,” with its healthcare system, universities, and tech scene.
The Regional Autonomous Patient Safety Initiative officially launched on Friday is expected to leverage these sectors.
This initiative is dedicated to improving healthcare safety using things like artificial intelligence, machine learning and other innovations.
The Jewish Medical Foundation is one of the organizations promoting federal safety boards like the National Transportation Safety Board.
“There are so many talented people in our community that we may not be able to wait,” says Feinstein. “I would love to have a National Patient Safety Board, but trust me, we’re working hard on it. There’s a lot we can do locally.”
Keynote speaker Joe Kiani, Chairman and CEO of Masimo Corp., advocated standard operating procedures in hospitals to help “prevent human error from becoming medical error.”
The founder of an Irvine, Calif.-based medical technology company says nosocomial infections and medication errors are two big challenges. Kiani’s company seeks to be more transparent in achieving these goals in order to keep these numbers in check.
“One thing we all know is that 75% of all medical errors involve poor handoff communication,” he said. “And many nurses and doctors are overwhelmed by all the alarms and information.”
This is just one example of how technology can help the platform consolidate patient data in one place and quickly communicate with clinicians before they even enter the room. He said.
Kiani said Masimo makes wearable tech. This will allow people discharged from the hospital to more easily monitor their symptoms at home and notify specialists quickly if anything goes wrong.
The event was co-organized by the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative and the Pittsburgh Technology Council. The announcement was made in partnership with the Digital Health Innovation Center at Carnegie Mellon University, the Center for Military Medical Research at the University of Pittsburgh, and the Department of Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Stephanie Ritenbaugh is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Stephanie at sritenbaugh@triblive.com.
