It is not uncommon to know very little about patient safety, 70% of Americans have heard nothing about it.
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CMS and the CDC observed substantial deterioration on patient safety metrics since the pandemic.Â
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Our healthcare industry faces a triple crisis of:
- Workforce Shortages
- Distrust in the healthcare system
- Increase in medical error
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Skilled nursing facilities saw rates of fall causing major injury increase by 17.4% and rates of pressure ulcers increase by 41.8%
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55% of nurses in acute care hospitals indicated that less than half the time their unit does not have the necessary number of staff to provide quality care.Â
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40% of nurses have expressed an intention to leave their practice within 2 years. 24% of physicians have expressed the same intent.
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27% of nurses responded that ancillary staff is seldom or never available to adequately support safety.
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38% of nurses reported an increase in medication errors or delays.Â
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For example:Â Delirium or other changes, significant hypoglycemia, acute kidney injury
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Hospital-Acquired Acute Kidney Injury (HA-AKI): HA-AKI is a condition that results in preventable harm and death in the hospital. AKI is a rapid decline in kidney function over a period of hours to days that results in a failure to regulate fluid, electrolyte and acid–base balance. It is a common and serious condition which has recently been demonstrated to be both predictable and avoidable in 20% of patients who develop AKI following admission and subsequently die. A government report issued in the UK found deficiencies in care in more than 50% of patients, many of which resulted from delays in diagnosis as a result of failure to carry out or act upon abnormal results for routine biochemistry monitoring and urinalysis.Â
For example: Pressure injury, venous thromboembolism (VTE), fall or trauma with injury
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VTE: Any blood clot that forms in the veins is called a venous thromboembolism (VTE). Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a medical condition that occurs when a blood clot forms in a deep vein, usually in the lower leg, thigh, pelvis and arms. DVTs are one of the most common cardiovascular conditions that cause significant harm to patients and sometimes lead to death. They are preventable and treatable if discovered early. Patients who develop a VTE have a higher in-hospital mortality rate and have around a 33% chance of developing another clot within 10 years (CDC, 2014). About half of people with DVT have no symptoms at all. Diagnostic imaging for confirmation includes venous doppler, V/Q scans or highly sensitive computerized tomography angiography (CTA) of the chest.
For example: Intestinal perforation, excessive bleeding, pneumothorax
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Excessive Bleeding: Hemorrhage, bleeding out, or extreme blood loss, refers to a major blood loss that may occur as a result of a surgical error in the operating room. Depending on the volume of blood loss and the amount of time the patient goes without receiving a transfusion, the result can be harmful and even deadly. Massive transfusion protocols (MTP) are important to initiate as soon as possible to rapidly administer blood products and manage hemorrhagic shock. Every second counts. How might an technology-enabled solution be applied when a surgical mistake is made so that excessive bleeding is stopped quickly avoiding long-term harm and death?
For example: Respiratory infection, surgical site infection, central line-associated blood stream infection (CLABSI)
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Non-ventilator healthcare-associated Pneumonia (NV-HAP): We’ve all heard of pneumonia and may often associate pneumonia with patients on ventilators. However, NV-HAP was recognized as one of ECRI’s Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns of 2022. Because pneumonia is often initiated from germs in the mouth, providing oral care with the right products and educational support addresses the most common modifiable risk factor and has the potential to improve health care quality and make health care safer for patients. However, nurses experience significant barriers in providing fundamental care, such as oral care, often due to a lack of easy-to-use effective products and educational materials. How might we apply technology-enabled solutions to help combat NV-HAP?
There are several types of diagnostic errors. The most common type is misdiagnoses, when the doctor diagnoses the patient with the wrong condition. Another common type is delayed diagnoses where a doctor may make a correct diagnosis, but it occurs after a significant delay. And lastly, missed diagnoses occur frequently. This is where the doctor gives the patient a clean bill of health when the patient is really suffering from an illness or disease that has not been identified so cannot be treated. All types of diagnostic errors cause significant harm and mortality to patients. What type of technology-enabled solution could you develop to help reduce diagnostic errors like those highlighted above?
Medi-Chain (Dev-Kit)
In an era where patient safety is jeopardized by fragmented healthcare records, counterfeit medication, and diagnostic inaccuracies, blockchain technology promises to be a game-changer. However, integrating blockchain into healthcare systems poses scalability, interoperability, and user-friendliness challenges, which need innovative solutions.Â
We invite hackathon participants to develop a blockchain-based framework that ensures patient data's integrity, confidentiality, and availability across various healthcare settings. Your solution should focus on one or more of the following patient safety concerns: Medication authenticity, patient care continuity, procedural accuracy, infection tracking, or diagnostic precision.
PhysioNet Database (medical data)
Open Data Science (15 Open Data Sets for Healthcare: WHO, CDC, data.gov, Re3Data, CHDS, Kent Ridge Biomedical, Merck Molecular, SEER, 1000 Genomes Project, Medicare, HCUP, AND Images: OASIS, OpenfMRI, CT Medical, Deep Lesion)
OpenFDAÂ (U.S. Food and Drug Administration datasets and APIs)
FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS): Latest Quarterly Data Files
Microsoft Responsible AI Framework
Azure Open Datasets CatalogÂ
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Open Datasets and Machine Learning Projects Here on Kaggle
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The 50 Best Free Datasets for Machine Learning Here on Lionbridge AI
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Best Public Datasets for Machine Learning and Data Science Here on AltexSoft
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Harvard Dataverse
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Azure for Students – Free Account Credit | Microsoft Azure
The passes provide $100 of Azure credit and 12 months of free services. The pass is renewable every year you remain a student. Each year you will get an email asking to renew. When you do you get another $100 and 12 more months! Using this link you can sign up, and validate you are a student by using your student email address.Â
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AWS Educate - Amazon Web Services for students
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Google Cloud for StudentsÂ
GitHub Student Developer Pack: Here you can find digital offers and other goodies. Once signed up you can get to the Azure for Students subscription.Â
Overview on Prototyping
For Non-Designers:Â
IDEO Tips on Prototyping a Business
Ideo’s List for Prototyping
High-Fidelity and Low-Fidelity Prototyping
There is an on-going debate about using low versus high fidelity prototyping and how much a prototype should resemble the final version of your design. Both have been found to be basically equivalent in finding usability issues (Walker et al 2002). With that said, there are things to consider when trying to decide which option is best for your project:
  • Low-fidelity prototypes are often paper-based and do not allow user interactions. They range from a series of hand-drawn mock-ups to printouts. In theory, low-fidelity sketches are quicker to create. Low-fidelity prototypes are helpful in enabling early visualization of alternative design solutions, which helps provoke innovation and improvement. An additional advantage to this approach is that when using rough sketches, users may feel more comfortable suggesting changes.
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  •High-fidelity prototypes are computer-based, and usually allow realistic (mouse-keyboard) user interactions. High-fidelity prototypes take you as close as possible to a true representation of the user interface. High-fidelity prototypes are assumed to be much more effective in collecting true human performance data (e.g., time to complete a task), and in demonstrating actual products to clients, management, and others.
   • What & Why of Usability
For Designing Prototypes:
Adobe XD - Design, prototype, & share user experiences for desktop, mobile, and web.
InVision and Balsamiq additional tools used for prototyping.
Proto.io - The world's first user flow diagramming tool tailored for designers. ... Showing a prototype created using the Proto.io editor on multiple devices; desktop,.
Webflow - Stop drawing pictures of websites and start coding them — visually
Also Great: Wix free trial, Squarespace free trial.
Use Keynote or Powerpoint for simple images and logos if you aren’t Adobe savvy.Â
Take sketches or drawings on paper and digitize them as jpeg or pdf with Genius Scan.
For uploading JPEGs into Device Wraps:
MockUPhone -Free and simple screenshots device mockups generator
For User Journeys:
Overflow - Turn your designs into playable user flow diagrams that tell a story.
Flowmapp - User Flow Diagrams
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