From the Desk of the Executive Director on the 9th annual Columbia Data Science Society Hackathon – Patient Safety Technology Challenge.
By Michael Wong, JD (Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
I recently had the honor of judging the Patient Safety Technology Challenge at Columbia University. The goal of the Challenge was to encourage the next generation’s students to be interested in patient safety and to use their education and skills to tackle patient safety.
The 9th annual Columbia Data Science Society Hackathon was held October 7-8, 2023 in New York City on Columbia University’s campus. A $500 prize for the top patient safety idea was sponsored by the Patient Safety Technology Challenge, with funding from the Pittsburgh Regional Health Initiative.

The winning team was Nikhil Reddy Varimalla and Arusarka Bose. This team presented “Decoding Devices: Improving Patient Safety with MAUDE”. MAUDE is the Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience, a database where the U.S. Food & Drug Administration houses medical device reports.
To read the article about the winning team and why they won, please click here.