Professor John Sartori is a 2024 Innovation Impact Case awardee
Professor John Sartori is a recipient of the 2024 Innovation Impact Case Award for his project Q-rounds, a virtual hospital round queuing software that he designed in collaboration with Professor Michael Pitt (Department of Pediatrics at the University). The award is offered by the Research and Innovation Office (RIO) at the University of Minnesota in recognition of research that has "significant impact outside of academia."
Q-rounds arms patients’ families with information on doctors’ rounding schedules allowing them to plan their own schedules and be present at the daily visits where doctors evaluate patients and discuss treatment plans. In the absence of access to rounding schedules families often miss these visits, a pervasive problem in hospital settings. These daily visits are a critical touch point between families and the care team and play a significant role in positive outcomes for patients. Piloted successfully at the MHealth Fairview Masonic Children’s Hospital neonatal intensive care unit last spring over a twelve week period, attendance by nursing staff and family members significantly increased with many family members even joining in remotely.
The success of Q-rounds is also founded on the expertise of other key team members. Shashank Hegde, Mathi Srinivasan, and Laura Daughtry contributed their technical expertise developing the tool, and Chelsea Klevesahl, co-founder and chief operating officer, has brought critical marketing and branding expertise to the team. The success of a product depends not only on its core features, but also on design aspects such as user friendliness, and intuitiveness. Klevesahl’s experience in the area has been critical to making the application appealing to users on those fronts.
Reflecting on the team and the tool they have created, Sartori says, “Our group's expertise in harnessing machine learning and data science to improve the healthcare system has allowed us to create an application that people actually love to use. Q-rounds not only improves patient experience, but it also improves patient care, makes best practices possible, and improves the rounding experience for doctors and nurses. Because of an overwhelming demand from patients and providers to keep using Q-rounds and expand the units where it could be used, we have continued to improve the application and its capabilities based on user feedback and internal innovation.”
Speaking about his partnership with Pitt and the diverse and complementary skills they bring to the table, Sartori says, “Mike provides medical insights that allow the technology to be very useful and fit seamlessly into the clinical environment, and I provide the technical insights and knowledge that bring our ideas to life.”
Professor Mike Pitt is the Chief Executive Officer Professor John Sartori is the chief technology officer of Q-rounds.
The story of Q-rounds is covered at length on the RIO website