From left: Jeannine Blake (Nursing), Hari Balasubramanian (Mechanical & Industrial Engineering), Lucy Xiaolu Wang (Resource Economics), Theo Schall (Health Promotion & Policy), Yash Javalkar (Engineering Management), Tiffany Hopper (Nursing)
In the sterile, high-stakes environment of an intensive care unit, IV medications are a lifeline. But they can also be a silent threat. Despite the widespread adoption of intravenous smart pumps meant to reduce errors, IV medication mistakes remain disturbingly frequent. The consequences are dire: prolonged hospital stays, preventable complications, and, in some cases, death. Yet, not all patients bear this burden equally. Older and racially diverse patients are disproportionately exposed intensive care environments with elevated risk for medication error, but the reasons behind these disparities remain largely unexplored.
This research seeks to change that. The team will analyze a massive dataset of ICU electronic health records spanning 14 years and including over 65,000 patients. By applying cutting-edge data analytics and causal inference techniques, the team will track how IV medication errors correlate with age, race, socioeconomic status, and insurance status, revealing where safety failures are most prevalent and who is paying the price—not just in health, but in financial cost. Using exposure to high-alert IV medications as a proxy for direct errors, they aim to quantify the hidden dangers lurking in IV medication administration and fuel the recognition that innovation is necessary to make hospital care safer for all.
Featuring a multidisciplinary team of students from nursing, engineering, and economics, the project is a launchpad for the next generation of health equity researchers. The students involved will play an active role in every phase of the study, gaining hands-on experience in data science, statistical modeling, and patient safety research. Engineering students will develop algorithms to track IV medication patterns, nursing students will interpret clinical implications, and economics students will assess the financial burdens of errors on public and private insurers. By working across disciplines, these students will gain a deeper understanding of how technological, medical, and economic forces intersect to shape health outcomes.
The team hopes their findings will drive meaningful change in hospital protocols, medical technology design, and healthcare policy. Their research will lay the groundwork for larger-scale funding applications to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institute on Aging, with the ultimate goal of developing real-world solutions to reduce IV medication errors.