2025 Nurse Innovation Award winners tackle critical health disparities

The American Nurses Enterprise (ANE) announced its 2025 Innovation Award winners this week, spotlighting two pioneering nurse-led technologies that directly address healthcare inequities across the United States.

The awards, sponsored by medical technology leader Stryker, recognize Dr. Sheridan Miyamoto and her team at Pennsylvania State University for their telehealth system supporting sexual assault survivors, and Dr. Amany Farag from the University of Iowa for her electronic medication management system for K-12 schools.

“Dr. Miyamoto and Dr. Farag are making substantial impacts for the communities they serve,” shared ANE Vice President of Innovation, Oriana Beaudet, DNP, RN, FAAN, in a statement. “Their innovations address system needs that exist in every community across our country by bringing high quality care to those in moments of crisis and need.”

Bringing expert sexual assault care to rural communities

Dr. Miyamoto’s Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Telehealth (SAFE-T) System tackles a critical gap in rural healthcare: the lack of trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) and proper resources for survivors.

In many rural areas, sexual assault survivors must choose between two poor options: travel hours to find qualified care or receive inadequate examination and evidence collection that might compromise their case. The SAFE-T System changes this equation by connecting rural healthcare providers with skilled Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) through secure telehealth technology.

The iOS-based forensic device allows for high-quality photo documentation that uploads instantly to secure cloud storage, ensuring evidence is properly collected and preserved.

Already implemented across six health systems and recognized as Pennsylvania’s Rural Health Program of the Year in 2024, the SAFE-T System aims to expand nationally. The $50,000 award will help scale this technology to reach more underserved communities.

Dr. Miyamoto’s team also provides training and mentorship to local healthcare professionals, strengthening the overall response to sexual assault cases.

“Giving nurses the resources, leverage, time, and space to be innovators and leaders is how we’ll really help solve problems in healthcare,” said Dr. Miyamoto in a YouTube video from the American Nurses Association (ANA). 

Making school medication administration safer

Nearly 14 million school-age children in the U.S. have chronic medical conditions requiring medication during school hours, but just over one-third of schools nationwide operate without a dedicated school nurse. This creates significant medication safety risks, as unlicensed personnel who often administer these medications have three times the error rate of trained school nurses.

Dr. Farag’s electronic school medication administration record (eSMAR) addresses this problem through fingerprint scanning and barcode technology that verifies both student identity and medication before administration.

The system immediately alerts staff to potential errors and sends notifications if a student misses a scheduled dose. For schools with limited resources, this technology could dramatically reduce medication errors and improve chronic disease management for children.

Dr. Farag’s $25,000 award will support efforts to commercialize eSMAR and integrate it with major educational platforms, potentially transforming medication safety in schools nationwide.

“One day, I woke up in the morning, and one of the school nurses texted me saying, ‘The system caught me! I made an error.’ I was so excited hearing all the positive feedback from the school nurses and the Health Care Coordinator for the entire district,” shared Dr. Farag. “Now I am piloting it with four schools, and she is ready to scale it to the entire school district. This makes me feel so proud.”

“My advice is: do not accept the status quo. If you are not satisfied with it, challenge it,” she advised.

Nurses as health innovation leaders

The Innovation Awards highlight nursing’s often overlooked role in healthcare technology development. Past winners have reported that the recognition transformed both their innovations and their professional identities.

“Winning the ANA Innovation Award affirms the value of nursing ideas. It changed the way I thought about myself and nursing,” said Kathleen Puri, a previous award recipient and co-founder of Fitsi Health.

Another past winner, Brighid Gannon, noted, “The ANA Innovation Award gave us the confidence and the funding to start Lavender, a nurse-led and operated psychiatry and therapy practice.”

Scott Sagehorn, Vice President at Stryker, emphasized the importance of the partnership: “At Stryker, innovation is in our DNA, as is making a positive impact in our communities. We’re grateful to this year’s winners for their work to advance healthcare with their new technologies.”

The 2025 award winners will use the next year to further develop their innovations, with findings to be presented in 2026. This investment in nurse-led innovation reflects a growing recognition that nurses, with their unique perspective on patient care challenges, play a crucial role in creating solutions that improve healthcare delivery and outcomes.

For healthcare systems seeking to address persistent inequities in care access and quality, these nurse-led innovations demonstrate how targeted technology applications can overcome significant barriers, ultimately bringing better care to vulnerable populations across America’s diverse communities.

Quotes have been edited for clarity. For more information about the SAFE-T System and eSMAR, visit the ANA Innovation website.