Health Care Innovation Center Minds Meet to Collaborate

In November, BluePrint Healthcare IT and The Innovation Institute hosted the Fourth Innovation Centers Summit Workshop at the Innovation Lab in Newport Beach, California. Innovation champions representing provider-based healthcare innovation centers from across the North America to develop best practices, learn about funding, how to succeed as a health care innovation accelerator and increase their organization’s capacity to innovate.

In the Innovation Lab’s 12,000 square foot space designed to inspire collaboration, learning, individual thinking, and group interaction, participants were able to gather in a project development area, simulation lab, small and large-group collaboration areas, in an ideation and deep dive workspace, and a dynamic showcase.

Three themes emerged from the best practices developed by the participants throughout the eight breakout/brainstorming sessions. The themes apply to development by the innovation centers as well as to the diffusion of innovation throughout the healthcare system or outside it.
 

1. Engage: Innovation centers needs to engage people outside the center, as well as outside the healthcare system itself. CEOs and their C-suite colleagues at provider-based healthcare systems need to be engaged and champion the innovation process. Physicians, clinical and business staff and patients, as well as partner organizations, need to be brought into the innovation process at an early stage and sought out as champions of innovation and healthcare delivery.
2. Process: While technology can be an important part of innovation, the process of developing innovation and the processes of healthcare delivery itself need to be examined and reinvented with a fresh look. A clear process needs to be put in place to encourage innovation and not let key opportunities fall through the cracks.
3. Measure: Inputs, processes and outputs need to be measured during the innovation process as well as in the diffusion of innovation in the system. Measurements need to be applied to the innovation process itself to enable progress and correction, as well as to judge the success of applied innovations.

Martha Hostetter and Sarah Klein from The Commonwealth Fund shared that a report is in progress that will describe the important role innovation centers play in improving healthcare delivery and the challenges they face. Innovation centers that develop, test and/or spread health care delivery innovations in real-world settings such as hospitals, ambulatory care sites and patient’s homes must face an audience made up of health system leaders, policy makers, payers, and entrepreneurs looking for opportunities to engage in or support them. The report will be based on results of a survey of innovations centers about their structure, focus and staffing, skill sets, resources, and time needed to do this kind of work.

Lisa Suennen, a venture capitalist, managing partner of Venture Valkyrie Consulting, and author of the California Healthcare Foundation Report “Survival of the Fittest: Healthcare Accelerators Evolve Toward Specialization” October 2014, provided insights into how and why accelerators have proliferated, and whether they are successful. Driven by implementation of the ACA, there are now almost 90 dedicated health accelerators in the United States, and at least a dozen more around the world. She says that six models have emerged: independent commercial model, enterprise-based innovation model, product- or sector-amplification model, economic model, university-affiliated model and collaboration platform.

While the accelerators are in a “noisy space” due to the large number of challenges in healthcare, accelerator leaders agreed that winners among entrepreneurs are those seeking to break into the space who have more than one idea, but not enough customers or capital to succeed without support from an accelerator.

Among 32 participants, there were a total of 112 one-on-one 15-minute “speed dating” sessions, which were critical to encouraging cross-fertilization among innovation centers during intense, focused discussions where they discovered many common challenges. Participants are looking forward to meeting after the Summit Workshop to share ideas and explore opportunities to collaborate.
These summits help to ensure the spread of the best innovation through an exchange of information and experiences, allowing for growth through learning from each other’s mistakes and successes.

About BluePrint Healthcare IT
BluePrint Healthcare IT is a professional services and software company working with healthcare organizations to create secure, connected communities of care to achieve the Triple Aim. Founded in 2003 in Cranbury, NJ, BluePrint Healthcare IT supports hospitals, healthcare systems, accountable care organizations, regional healthcare initiatives and health plans. BluePrint became a Microsoft Managed Partner with the development of Care Navigator™, the care coordination technology platform used to enable active, scalable communication for the whole extended care team from physician to patient. BluePrint’s Innovation Exchange (BIX) public policy initiative supports cross-fertilization and collaboration among its expanding network of provider-based innovation centers. To learn more visit https://www.blueprinthit.com.

About The Innovation Institute 
The Innovation Institute is an independent, for-profit LLC structured to cultivate innovative solutions to transform healthcare delivery. The Innovation Institute will be owned by seven non-profit health systems. This collaborative will tap into physicians, employees, and industry business partners to incubate and commercialize new products and ideas. Comprised of three distinct elements – an innovation lab, an investment fund, and a shared services group (Enterprise Development Group), the Institute strives to “do more, with less, for more people.” For more information, visit https://www.ii4change.com.