On April 12, the 28th annual Cleveland International Film Festival hosted the world premiere of the documentary, The Pitch: Patient Safety's Next Generation, followed by Q&As with the filmmakers. In total, over 200 people attended two screenings of the film at the festival, garnering a fantastic reception with many questions about the future of technology in medicine and next steps to improve patient safety.
The Pitch: Patient Safety's Next Generation explores a new wave of technology and innovation – including AI and VR solutions – designed to make health care safer. Through expert interviews, real-world technology solutions, and one young innovator's journey into the business of medicine, The Pitch looks at the evolving role of technology in improving patient safety across medicine. From the director of To Err Is Human: A Patient Safety Documentary, The Pitch was funded and executive produced by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation.
Cleveland International Film Festival draws more than 100,000 film enthusiasts annually and is an Academy® qualifying festival.
The Pitch is built upon the Patient Safety Technology Challenge, a project of the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative and funded by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, which has been sponsoring patient safety awards across the nation since late 2022. Through these awards, the filmmakers were able to identify two of the innovators featured in the film. The film closely follows Reetam Ganguli, a Brown University MD Candidate and OBGYN machine learning researcher who won the patient safety award from the University of San Diego's Fowler Global Social Innovation Competition, and Dr. James Clarkson's innovation, Wide Awake VR (WAVR). Both were finalists for the 2023 SXSW Innovation Awards that were also part of the Patient Safety Technology Challenge.
The Pitch will next be available to screen as part of the JFilm Festival for those in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia between May 2 and May 12. Use the code "JHFJF24" to get $3 off your ticket.
Read more about The Pitch in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and in the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.