Anthony Chao, BSN ’12, a RN Options graduate, won the Michael G. Wells Student Entrepreneurship Competition at the “First Look” Technology Showcase, hosted by the Office of Enterprise Development. Working with Steven Benso (BS’06), a brain trauma research nurse in the Neurological Surgery department at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Chao developed an application (App) for managing and streamlining continuing education credits for health care professionals using OCR and QR scanning. Chao and Benso received $10,000 to further develop the App.
Mentored by Irene Kane, PhD, RN, assistant professor in the Department of Health and Community Systems, Chao previously designed and implemented a computerized shift report system to help increase patient safety while he was a student in Kane’s Professional Development and Practicum 1 and 2 classes. The results of this staff-driven quality improvement tool were published in the November issue of Nursing Critical Care 2011, and the software has been adopted at select ICUs at UPMC Presbyterian. Chao, who plans to start the Nurse Anesthesia program in January 2013, wrote about his project and his mentorship experience with Kane in the Fall 2012 issue of Pitt Nurse Magazine.