Patient Safety Challenge Fellowship Brings a $5,000 Competition to its Multidisciplinary Cohort

Dr. Karen Feinstein welcomes the Patient Safety Challenge Fellowship cohort.

The 19^th annual Patient Safety Fellowship launched on May 31^st to help inspire and equip students and innovators to reimagine safer care. This year's 37 fellows have been challenged to start from a patient/family perspective and redesign care for that group to be vastly safer. The Fellowship will conclude at the Health Care Redesign Expo & Award Ceremony where teams of fellows will showcase their ideas and one team will walk away with a $5,000 prize. The Fellowship builds on the work the Jewish Healthcare Foundation and Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative started last year with the Patient Safety Technology Challenge.

During the summer leading up to the finale, fellows will work with renowned mentors to help shape their vision. The curriculum includes sessions with national leaders in patient safety to help inform the fellows' understanding of the existing patient safety landscape and opportunities for reinventing the system. 

"As a nurse and leader, I am focused on improving patient safety every day," said Jennifer Callear, MSN, doctor of nursing practice candidate at the University of Pittsburgh and nurse manager at WVU Medicine Heart and Vascular Institute. "The Jewish Healthcare Foundation brings the best and most thoughtful leaders in patient safety to speak and generate thoughts and ideas from the fellows. The sessions have been an inspiration and will build on my experiences and knowledge in the field of patient safety."

The expo-style Finale on Monday, August 14 will take place at the Energy Innovation Center in Pittsburgh. Academic and healthcare leaders from the Pittsburgh region will be invited to the finale to hear fellows' ideas. A panel of Pittsburgh-based judges will pick a winning team from the submissions, and the team will receive a $5,000 cash prize. Attendees at the Finale will also be able to vote for a separate $500 People's Choice Award also to be given out during the programming.

Fellows have formed 16 different teams to participate in the competition.

This year's fellowship cohort is made up of 37 fellows that range from undergraduate students to graduate and doctoral students to young professionals with a diverse range of backgrounds including medicine, nursing, health policy, health administration, health informatics, pharmacy, philosophy, design, and engineering. The fellows have formed 16 different teams, and some of the teams even include non-fellow members.

"Having witnessed the complexities and barriers in the US healthcare system, I have recognized a lack of responsibility that is taken for the safety of patients, with the burden often placed on healthcare providers rather than the system itself," said Alexander Geht, MSC, industrial designer and founder of Testa Seat. "My aim is to contribute my expertise and reimagine health care from a patient and family perspective and hope to help make a safer model of care."