Every arena in the healthcare industry, including providers, payers, vendors and pharmaceutical companies, is upping the ante with innovation. However, there are multiple paths success and it can be difficult to decide on the first step.
At the Becker's Hospital Review 7th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable Nov. 13 in Chicago, a panel of experts discussed what innovation means to them as well as the biggest misconceptions about innovation. The panel included:
• Jim Dietsche, executive vice president and CFO of Green Bay, Wis.-based Bellin Health
• Wyatt Yelverton, health solutions manager at Lenovo Health
• George Tidmarsh, MD, PhD, CEO, president and director of La Jolla Pharmaceutical Company
During the panel, Mr. Dietsche spoke about most common mistakes when developing innovation programs. One of the key challenges he found for an integrated delivery system is representatives from ambulatory care, hospital care and post-acute care all bring in innovative ideas, but none are accomplished because the focus spreads over several innovations instead of one or two.
"We have from learned that over time and have really tried to create an organizational structure that gets behind specific initiatives, so that we can focus on those," he said. "Our organization is focused around business cycles and the leadership team has fostered an initiative where we agree upon [an innovation program] within our leadership structure and get physician support, and then we test that methodology. We then announce it to the organization and we make sure the organization is going to support it from an IT perspective and finance perspective."
Bellin has action cycles over 120 days to test the innovative initiatives before assessing accomplishments and failures for the next 120-day cycle.
Mr. Yelverton discussed innovation in vendor-provider partnerships.
"One of the most significant things I can request from potential partners is to have a clear understanding of their objectives and key performance indicators from the provider side of the equation," he said. "Coming from the vendor element, it's fairly straightforward with respect to return on investment and being able to penetrate the market in a particular way. But from a provider perspective, you have to understand what a partnership means to your organization with respect to how you are innovating and how you are going to translate that partnership into something meaningful for your organization."
Dr. Tidmarsh rounded out the panel to speak about the biggest misconception about innovation in pharma.
"One of the misconceptions is that we in the pharmaceutical industry are just out for money and will do anything get that money and that we don't really care about the patients or advancing care. That's not true at all," he said. "The vast majority of people in the pharmaceutical industry are dedicated healthcare professionals, and they really want to make things work for the patient and [provider]. I also think some of the deserved slaps on the wrist or worse because of abuses in the pharmaceutical industry have led almost to an overregulation. Basically, there are a good number of institutions that won't even let pharmaceutical representatives into the front door. That is really a disservice to your healthcare providers, because actually there is a tremendous amount of knowledge and information that [pharma] companies can provide to hospitals. "
Editor's note: The quotes have been edited for length and clarity.