IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Patient Safety Movement Foundation announced the 2015 winners of the Humanitarian Awards at the 2016 Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit on January 23, 2016 in Dana Point, California. A video of the award ceremony can be found on http://www.patientsafetymovement.org/summit. This year, the awards were presented to (alphabetical order):
- Senator Barbara Boxer
- Patient Safety Advocate, Alicia Cole
- President Barack Obama & Vice President Joe Biden
- Professor Kai Zacharowski
“The Humanitarian Award honors those who have truly led and made significant progress in eliminating preventable patient deaths,” stated Joe Kiani, Founder of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation. “We are so grateful for the work that they have done and continue to do in the area of patient safety. They are truly helping humanity.”
Senator Barbara Boxer is a forceful advocate for families, children, consumers, the environment and her State of California. She is a strong proponent of life-saving medical research and wrote bipartisan legislation to accelerate America’s contribution to combat global HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis. Since becoming aware of the number of preventable deaths in the US, Senator Boxer has been a strong champion of patient safety. In 2014, Senator Boxer wrote to 283 California acute care hospitals asking them to respond with the actions they are taking to reduce the most common medical errors, leading to the first publication of this report in April of 2014. Senator Boxer visited multiple hospitals in California to bring attention to patient safety and the work that must be done to eliminate preventable deaths. To date, more than 90% of hospitals have responded to her inquiry and Senator Boxer continues to champion zero preventable deaths in hospitals.
Alicia Cole is a survivor of multiple Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs). She is an incredible patient advocate who shares her story with healthcare professionals, legislators and medical students across the country. Alicia collaborates regularly with numerous patient safety organizations including the Patient Safety Movement Foundation to help eliminate harm from preventable hospital acquired infections. She is the Founder and Executive Director of the Alliance for Safety Awareness for Patients (ASAP), an organization dedicated to promoting public awareness of the epidemic of hospital acquired infections, mentoring new patient advocates and counseling with other Survivors of Necrotizing Fasciitis and other medical harm.
President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were honored for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Acts (ACA). Not only has their work allowed more people to have access to healthcare, but through the new payment incentives, over 50,000 lives have been saved.
Professor Kai D. Zacharowski, MD, PhD, FRCA, holds the position of the Ordinarius and is the Director of the Department of Anesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy at the University Hospital Frankfurt. His latest hypothesis and research on blood management, which was presented for the first time at the World Patient Safety, Science and Technology Summit, promises to save countless lives, and reduce costs. The innovative model to reduce pre-operative anemia is focused on three core concepts: identifying patients at risk for needing transfusion, increasing their hemoglobin level before surgery, minimizing the risk of hitting levels that require blood transfusions. He also released the findings of this groundbreaking study demonstrated up to 20% reduction in red blood cell transfusion, risk of acute kidney injury, and overall costs, without any negative impact to patient safety. The study is pending peer review.
About The Patient Safety Movement Foundation
More than 3,000,000 people worldwide, and 200,000 people in the US, die every year in hospitals in ways that could have been prevented. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation was established through the support of the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation, and Competition in Healthcare, to reduce that number of preventable deaths to 0 by 2020 (0X2020) in the US and dramatically worldwide. Improving patient safety will require a collaborative effort from all stakeholders, including patients, healthcare providers, medical technology companies, government, employers, and private payers. The Patient Safety Movement Foundation works with all stakeholders to address the problems and solutions of patient safety. The Foundation also convenes annual Patient Safety, Science and Technology summits that are by invitation only. The Summit presents specific, high-impact actionable solutions to meet patient safety challenges, encouraging medical technology companies to share the data for which their products are purchased, and asking hospitals to make commitments to implement Actionable Patient Safety Solutions. The Foundation is working toward zero preventable deaths by 2020. Visit www.patientsafetymovement.org.
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