How Pharos is Preventing Medical Mistakes in Hospitals

Pharos is an innovative start-up founded in 2024, focused on preventing medical mistakes in hospitals through the application of advanced artificial intelligence (AI). The company is based in San Francisco and has a compact yet highly skilled team of three individuals. Pharos is spearheaded by CEO Felix Brann and CTO Matthew Jones, both of whom bring extensive experience in the health tech industry. The company's mission is to revolutionize hospital operations by automating data extraction and providing real-time quality metrics, enabling healthcare providers to focus more on patient outcomes and less on administrative tasks.

How Did Pharos Get Started?

The inception of Pharos is rooted in the collaborative efforts and shared experiences of its founders, Felix Brann and Matthew Jones, during their tenure at Vital.io. Over nearly five years, they worked closely together at Vital.io, a company known for deploying AI models in hospital settings. While piloting the clinical adoption of a predictive sepsis model, Felix and Matthew recognized a significant opportunity. They saw the immense potential of AI to empower quality staff in hospitals, thereby improving patient outcomes. This realization was the catalyst for the creation of Pharos. Motivated by their shared vision of enhancing patient safety through innovative technology, Felix and Matthew decided to co-found Pharos and dedicate their expertise to this transformative mission.

Who are the Founders?

Felix Brann, the CEO of Pharos, brings a wealth of experience in data science and quantitative research. Before founding Pharos, Felix served as the VP of Data Science at Vital.io and the VP of Quantitative Research at JP Morgan. His deep understanding of data analytics and his passion for addressing complex health issues, particularly sepsis, have been instrumental in shaping the strategic direction of Pharos.

Matthew Jones, the CTO of Pharos, has a robust background in software engineering and health technology. Prior to co-founding Pharos, Matthew was part of the founding team of Market2x, a rural trucking SAAS startup that he helped grow from inception to international expansion. Throughout his career, Matthew has worked as a software engineer at various health tech companies, where he honed his technical skills and innovative thinking. His expertise is crucial to the development and implementation of Pharos' AI-powered solutions.

What is the Long-term Vision of Pharos?

Pharos envisions a future where AI is seamlessly integrated into every hospital, proactively identifying and preventing medical mistakes before they can cause serious harm. The founders aim to position Pharos as a guiding light, or a "lighthouse," for hospitals, ensuring patient safety and supporting clinicians in delivering optimal care. By providing tools that enable rapid, data-driven decisions, Pharos seeks to revolutionize the healthcare industry, reduce patient harm, and significantly improve clinical outcomes. The company's long-term vision is to create a healthcare environment where AI catches medical errors throughout the hospital, fostering a culture of safety and continuous improvement.

How Does Pharos Automate Data Extraction?

One of the cornerstone capabilities of Pharos is its ability to automate the extraction of data from patient charts, a task that traditionally requires hundreds of clinical hours. Manual data extraction is not only time-consuming but also prone to errors. Pharos addresses this challenge by leveraging AI to streamline the process, ensuring that data is accurately and efficiently extracted. The platform automates the submission of data to clinical registries such as TQIP and NSQIP, significantly reducing the administrative burden on hospital staff. This automation allows hospitals to perform rapid and precise reviews, facilitating timely interventions and quality improvements.

What Makes Pharos’ Rapid Reporting Unique?

Pharos offers a unique rapid reporting feature that enables hospitals to generate critical reports swiftly, without the need for manual data handling. This capability is crucial for hospital administrators and quality teams, who require real-time access to essential data to make informed decisions. By cutting through complex hospital data, Pharos empowers staff to focus on improving patient outcomes rather than getting bogged down by administrative tasks. The platform's intuitive interface and powerful analytics tools provide a comprehensive view of hospital performance, enhancing operational efficiency and patient safety.

How Do Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) Work with Pharos?

Root Cause Analyses (RCAs) are a fundamental aspect of quality improvement in healthcare, aimed at identifying the underlying causes of safety events and implementing corrective actions. Traditionally, RCAs can take weeks to complete, delaying crucial process changes that could prevent future safety events. Pharos revolutionizes this process by streamlining RCAs, allowing clinicians to complete them in a matter of hours. The platform provides tools for conducting thorough and efficient RCAs, minimizing the lag between identifying a safety event and implementing necessary changes. This rapid turnaround enhances overall patient safety and operational efficiency, ensuring that hospitals can quickly address and rectify issues.

How Does Pharos Handle Audits?

Audits are essential for maintaining hospital compliance and performance standards. They involve the systematic review of hospital processes, practices, and outcomes to ensure adherence to regulatory requirements and quality benchmarks. Pharos simplifies the audit process by providing a comprehensive view of the hospital's performance on Joint Commission (JCO) and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) metrics with just one click. This functionality enables hospitals to handle audit data requests quickly and accurately, ensuring compliance and continuous improvement in quality standards. Pharos' audit capabilities help hospitals identify areas for improvement, implement corrective actions, and maintain high standards of patient care.

What Role Does Data-Driven Decision Making Play at Pharos?

Data-driven decision making is at the heart of Pharos' approach to improving patient safety and quality of care. The platform leverages AI to pull insights from patient charts automatically, offering hospitals a deep understanding of safety events without adding to IT backlogs or Security Control Room (SCR) workloads. This capability provides real-time visibility into hospital operations, allowing for timely interventions and data-driven decision-making that enhance patient safety and quality of care. Pharos enables hospitals to track Quality Improvement (QI) project adherence and outcomes on a daily basis, detect near misses, and understand the complex causes of safety failings. This comprehensive approach ensures that hospitals can make informed decisions to maximize the impact of their QI projects.

How Does Pharos Ensure Security?

Security is a paramount concern for Pharos, given the sensitive nature of healthcare data. The platform is designed with best-in-class security measures to ensure that patient data remains safe and secure. Pharos is fully compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and can be deployed either in the cloud or locally in a hospital's data center, depending on the hospital's preferences and requirements. Pharos uses robust encryption and security protocols to protect data during transmission and storage. Additionally, the company has extensive experience integrating with all major Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems and connected systems, ensuring a smooth and secure implementation process. Pharos' commitment to security ensures that hospitals can trust the platform to handle their data with the utmost care and confidentiality.

What Sets Pharos Apart in the Health Tech Industry?

Pharos distinguishes itself in the health tech industry through its commitment to transparency, innovation, and excellence in patient safety. The platform not only provides insights but also shows the reasoning and source documentation behind each insight, ensuring that hospital staff can trust the AI's recommendations and make informed decisions confidently. Pharos' unique combination of automated data extraction, rapid reporting, streamlined RCAs, and robust security sets it apart from other solutions in the market. The company's dedication to continuous improvement and its focus on empowering quality staff in hospitals underscore its mission to revolutionize healthcare and enhance patient outcomes.

Conclusion: Why Choose Pharos?

Pharos represents the future of patient safety and quality improvement in hospitals. By automating data extraction, providing rapid reporting, streamlining RCAs, and ensuring robust security, Pharos enables hospitals to focus on what truly matters—improving patient outcomes. With a clear vision and a dedicated team, Pharos is poised to make a significant impact in the healthcare industry, making hospitals safer and more efficient through the power of AI. Choosing Pharos means choosing a partner committed to excellence, innovation, and the continuous improvement of patient care. As hospitals strive to navigate the complexities of modern healthcare, Pharos stands ready to guide them towards a safer, more efficient future.