First RAPS Patient Safety Research and Development Salon Highlights Digital Twin Technology

The first Regional Autonomous Patient Safety (RAPS) Research and Development Salon convened over 50 innovators, researchers, and technology entrepreneurs from across the Pittsburgh region on June 29 to learn about digital twin technology, patient safety research efforts at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, and funding opportunities to advance patient safety technology research and development in the region.

A salon is a gathering of individuals from various disciplines and organizations who come together to engage in intellectual discussions, share ideas, and inspire the development of innovative solutions. The RAPS Salons are designed to stimulate a pipeline of new patient safety R&D activity in the region by encouraging participants to learn about patient safety priorities and market opportunities, hear about the needs of providers, patients and payers to prevent harm in health care; explore applications of technologies to prevent harm in health care; establish connections across verticals for patient safety R&D and discover participants' strengths and interests; monitor funding opportunities and identify opportunities to joint file for grants; and identify tactics for improving the development and implementation of tech in health care.

The Pittsburgh region is primed to become a leader in creating patient safety technology solutions by deploying its regional assets in robotics, AI/ML, Big Data Analytics, and integrated delivery systems.

During the meeting, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative announced the opening of the RAPS Seed Grant request for proposals, which includes $300,000 to support patient safety research and development in the region.

José-Alain Sahel, MD, Distinguished Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, gave a presentation on "The Digital Twin Project to Inform Safe, Optimal Treatment Decisions." During his presentation, Dr. Sahel defined digital twins, reviewed the Digital Twin Project, and commented on Pittsburgh's potential to become a leader in applying Digital Twin analytics to prevent harm in health care. Following the presentation, JHF's Chief Policy Officer Robert Ferguson, MPH facilitated a discussion on the novel application of digital twins to patient safety and Pittsburgh's potential to become a leader.

Sandra Kane-Gill, Eugene Mathew, Nickie Cappella, and Michael Becich of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Biomedical Informatics provided an update on the Pitt Medical Error Avoidance at Region Scale (MEARS) Study, the data sharing infrastructure and collaboration with the CMU Initiative for Patient Safety Research (IPSR), and the Pitt/R3 data and secure computing infrastructure. A discussion was also held on how this collaboration can lead to a collaborative proposal for funding to the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) for the RAPS, Pitt, and CMU patient safety research.

To register for upcoming Salons in 2023, visit the RAPS initiative page here.