To establish Pittsburgh as a global hub for developing autonomous patient safety technologies, the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative (PRHI) and the Jewish Healthcare Foundation have launched the Regional Autonomous Patient Safety (RAPS) Initiative.

Pittsburgh has the potential to lead the way as a global hub for developing autonomous patient safety technologies. The RAPS initiative will build on the region’s exceptional resources, such as AI and robotics leadership; the breadth and depth of health sciences research and education at the region’s universities; and the region’s rich entrepreneurship and business community to spur an innovation ecosystem and economy for healthcare safety.

The Pittsburgh RAPS Initiative is knitting together Pittsburgh’s regional assets to spark collaboration and connection to build a new industry focused on developing autonomous patient safety solutions. Two key funding partnerships have been established through grants in 2022, to Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for Digital Health Innovation for their Initiative for Patient Safety Research and to the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Biomedical Informatics’ Medication Error Avoidance at Region Scale study.

Read: Overview of the RAPS initiative


RAPS R&D Salons

pdf About the RAPS Patient Safety R&D Salons (141 KB)

1^st RAPS Patient Safety R&D Salon
Thursday, 6/29 – 9am to 10am
Presentation
Recording

2^nd RAPS Patient Safety R&D Salon
Wednesday, 8/23 – 11am to 12pm
Recording

3^rd RAPS Patient Safety R&D Salon
Wednesday, 10/11 – 12pm to 1pm
Register here

4^th RAPS Patient Safety R&D Salon
Wednesday, 12/6 – 12pm to 1pm
Register here

RAPS Seed Grant Program

As part of the RAPS initiative, JHF and PRHI designed the Seed Grant Program to support multidisciplinary Research & Development (R&D) teams, start-ups, or tech entrepreneurs in the Pittsburgh region that are in the earliest stages of developing, testing, and promoting autonomous, technology-enabled solutions to prevent harm in health care.

RAPS Launch Event

Read: RAPS Launch Event highlights

Watch Joe Kiani's Keynote from the Pittsburgh RAPS Launch Event on February 24, 2023:

To keep up to date on the RAPS initiative, including invitations for upcoming events and Patient Safety R&D Salons, please sign up for updates.

Sign Up for RAPS Updates