PRHI champions tech’s role in patient safety at Consumer Electronics Show
Three winners and three runners-up, including a team from Carnegie Mellon University, were chosen by more than two dozen third-party judges for their pioneering inventions.

The Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative has gone high-tech in its mission to reduce preventable medical errors and improve patient safety.
PRHI, an operating arm of the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, appeared on the startup stage at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 9 to announce the inaugural grand award winners of its 2025 Patient Safety Technology Challenge.
Three winners and three runners-up, including a team from Carnegie Mellon University, were chosen by more than two dozen third-party judges for their pioneering inventions, based on criteria such as innovativeness, impact on patient safety, scalability and feasibility.
The awards are the culmination of hackathons and other competitions PRHI sponsored, beginning in 2022, at more than 60 events and universities, with more than 700 teams participating in the U.S., U.K. and Canada.
Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO of PRHI and JHF, presented the awards, which include prizes of $7000 for the top finalists and $1250 for the runners-up.
All six finalists were required to pitch their inventions in tightly timed sessions. Some used visuals and models of what they developed.
“It was a lot of work, but thrilling,” Feinstein said, in that the event showcased some of the “astonishing ideas” PRHI is helping to generate through hackathons and similar venues.
Hackathons — a portmanteau of hack and marathon — are events that bring people together for intensive brainstorming and engineering in a short period of time, typically a weekend.
They can be the genesis of promising innovations, Feinstein said.
“We want to engage young people willing to work on big ideas as interdisciplinary teams. They love hackathons and competing, so it’s a wonderful vehicle to get them involved.”
About six years ago, Feinstein began attending the annual CES, where two entire floors are devoted to health care-related technologies, although relatively few have to do with patient safety, she said, because of low market demand by providers.
Feinstein also was learning about hackathons as a breeding ground for creativity, which sparked the idea for the Challenge, she said.
“It became clear to me that the future of patient safety is with technology. It would take the burden off people on the front line — the frazzled doctors, and the shortage of nurses. This is where technology can come in.”
When PRHI began sponsoring competitions two years ago, MIT and South by Southwest “were takers” — a sure sign the Challenge would work — Feinstein said, noting that interest quickly spread.
Feinstein set her sights on CES — one of the largest gatherings of its kind in the world — because of the visibility it would bring to the Challenge, and said securing a spot on the startup stage was “a grand slam, something I’ve dreamt about, and I’m a grandma who can hardly program her Roku.”
This year’s three top awardees in the idea, development and growth categories, respectively, are:
SoundPass Medical, which reimagines neurosurgical precision with an ultrasound-guided stylet for external ventricular drains, offering real-time 3D imaging to enhance safety and reduce risks during brain procedures
Bloom Surgical, for LaparoVision, a one-time use laparoscopic lens cleaner that ensures surgeons maintain visibility during critical procedures, thus reducing delays and improving outcomes
Elythea, an AI platform that predicts pregnancy complications early, helping clinicians to allocate resources and engage patients with timely interventions, particularly in underserved areas
The three runners-up are Reel Free, a motorized device that manages oxygen tubing at home; ERinfo, which uses AI tools and facial recognition for patient identification during emergencies; and Galen Health, a Carnegie Mellon University-related startup that created early detection technology for pancreatic and other cancers.
Logan Nye, a physician and CMU graduate student in computer science, said receiving a PRHI award is confirmation that he and his Galen partner, Kushagra Agarwal, are developing a technology worth pursuing.
“We’re pretty jazzed,” Nye, 32, said, noting that he and Agarwal, 24, have entered a number of contests to build credibility for their AI-generated program described as a screening tool to help doctors avoid missing important diagnoses.
The partners are navigating funding now through well-established angel investors and venture capital firms, Nye said. “Getting introduced to them is the thing.”
PRHI has been working on patient safety for nearly 30 years, Feinstein said of a vexing health care issue that, according to some studies, is the third leading cause of death in America.
Except in some areas, such as anesthesiology, the problem of preventable patient harm generally has gotten worse, she said.
According to PRHI, they include medication-related errors (44 %); basic complications with patient care, such as falls, electrolyte imbalances and skin tears (23 %); procedure and surgery mistakes, such as leaving an instrument in a body (22 %); and infections, like UTIs and pneumonia (11%). PJC
Deborah Weisberg is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.
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