From October 19 to November 16, SMD Entrepreneurs, a UR student group focused on supporting students’ entrepreneurial endeavors, held the first UR Patient Safety Technology Challenge in partnership with the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI). PRHI is an organization dedicated to educating medical professionals about solutions to improve the quality and safety of delivered healthcare. Specifically, they seek to combat preventable medical errors, the five most common of which are medication errors, patient care errors (e.g. blood clots, pressure injuries, falls), procedure or surgery-related errors (e.g. excessive blood loss), infections, and diagnostic errors (e.g. missed or delayed diagnosis). PRHI sponsors Patient Safety Challenges at universities across the U.S., with the goal of increasing awareness on the subject and encouraging the development of innovative technologies to address these issues.

Team SAMA presenting their idea for VapGuard. Image courtesy of Henry Litsky ‘24 (E5).

Over the course of the program’s four week run, the eight participating teams received mentorship from medical professionals, as well as guidance from business experts on commercialization plans. On November 16, the program culminated with each team presenting their work to a panel of judges. The first prize winners of $2,000 were team SAMA, Sudarshan Ramanan ’29 (M.D. Candidate, SKMC), Aditya Gunturi ’28 (M.D. Candidate, URSMD), Mathew Stephen ’30 (M.D. Candidate, URSMD), and Aashay Mardikar ’26 (BS in Biochemistry). Congratulations to SAMA on their success, and to all of the teams who participated!

Image courtesy of Henry Litsky ‘24 (E5).