Becker's Healthcare is pleased to recognize 66 hospitals and health systems with innovation programs.
The hospitals and health systems on this list have committed to staying on the forefront of change in healthcare. The hospitals have dedicated departments, institutes and organizations to promote research, development and innovation. Several of the centers include process redesign, care delivery and coordination improvement initiatives; others incubate new ideas for integrating IT into healthcare delivery. Departments featured on this list also support surgeons and researchers in obtaining patents and bringing their ideas for medical devices, diagnostics and mobile health platforms into reality.
Several centers featured on this list have established commercialization arms and technology transfer offices addressing some of the biggest challenges in healthcare delivery.
Note: This list was compiled through editorial research and consideration of nominations. This is not an endorsement of hospitals or affiliated healthcare providers. Organizations cannot pay for inclusion on this list, and hospitals are listed in alphabetical order.
Contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com with questions or comments on this list.
Advocate Cerner Collaborative (Downers Grove, Ill.). The Advocate Cerner Collaborative utilizes Cerner's HealtheIntent platform and the roughly 6 million Advocate Health Care records it stores to identify patients who face the highest risk of hospitalization. To prevent those high-cost hospitalizations, the Advocate Cerner Collaborative gives care managers the data needed to quickly intervene and implement action plans. The population health management effort has resulted in 90 percent of targeted patients receiving timely interventions, and early data have shown an 11 percent decrease in heart failure-related hospitalizations.
Ascend Innovations (Dayton, Ohio). Dayton Children's Hospital, Dayton-based Kettering Health Network and Dayton-based Premier Health Partners created Ascend Innovations in 2015 through a partnership between the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association and Kaleidoscope, a product design firm. The joint venture is focused on developing commercially viable healthcare products and solutions, particularly to benefit the Dayton region. In 2017, Ascend Innovations launched an effort to give physicians insights into cancer treatments, clinical research and risk assessment through data from 14 million unique patient encounters.
Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital's Center for Patient Experience Innovation. Akron Children's Hospital's Center for Patient Experience Innovation aims to improve treatment outcomes by providing patients and their families emotional and cognitive support throughout the care journey. Embracing a human-centered design philosophy, the program involves current and future patients in the development of new service approaches and interventions. The Center for Patient Experience Innovation also includes the Center for Telehealth Service Design, which conducts forward-looking research on how to improve treatment through telemedicine.
Atlantic Health System Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center's Center for Nursing Innovation and Research. Through the Center for Nursing Innovation and Research, Morristown Medical Center's nearly 1,600 nurses brainstorm ideas for medical products that could improve care quality and raise performance standards. Launched in 2017 with a dedicated space across the street from the hospital, the internal incubator allows nurses to explore evidence-based solutions for the multitude of challenges facing healthcare. Innovations developed at The Center for Nursing Innovation and Research impact care delivery at Morristown Medical Center, but they also reach nurses throughout Atlantic Health System and medical centers across the U.S.
Baylor Scott & White Office of Digital Health (Dallas). As part of a larger effort to deliver convenient, patient-centric care, the Baylor Scott & White Office of Digital Health created a patient app: MyBSWHealth. With another app incorporating updated MyChart functionality and a new website that launched in February, Baylor Scott & White Health's 14-person innovation team aims to revamp the customer experience. The system also operates a digital lab with about 50 full-time-equivalent staff members devoted to custom development.
Baylor Scott & White Health's Technology Transfer Office (Dallas). When Baylor Scott & White Health faculty and staff members develop patent, market and license technology, the Technology Transfer Office works with them at all development stages to help the innovations reach their full potential. While translating Baylor inventions into products and services that can improve patients' lives, the office facilitates valuable connections between the innovators and partner companies. The Technology Transfer Office and its innovators have developed a comprehensive innovations portfolio covering the fields of physical medicine and rehabilitation, orthopedics, oncology, gastroenterology and more.
Baystate Health's TechSpring (Springfield, Mass.). Launched in 2014, Baystate Health's TechSpring is a digital innovation center that offers technology companies access to the $2.5 billion health system and its more than 12,000 employees. The laboratory enables companies to test and validate digital health technologies — such as patient monitoring applications and medical record solutions — within an authentic healthcare environment. In 2017, the Massachusetts Digital Health Initiative awarded TechSpring $80,000 to help fund networking events and coworking spaces for startups.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Technology Ventures Office (Boston). Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Technology Ventures Office collaborates with biomedical companies, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to commercialize faculty inventions for widespread utilization. In addition to evaluating, patenting, marketing and licensing faculty inventions, the office's business-oriented professionals forge industry alliances through collaboration and licensing agreements. The office has helped commercialize various technologies developed at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, including suture systems, male fertility kits, supplements and imaging enhancements.
Boston Children's Hospital's Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator. Boston Children's Hospital launched the Innovation & Digital Health Accelerator to broaden its digital health offerings and encompass remote care services, clinical decision support tools and interoperable technologies. The accelerator's portfolio of solutions includes HealthMap, a surveillance tool that maps emerging public health threats in real time, and KidsMD, a voice-enabled tool for Amazon's Alexa platform. Through these innovations and active partnerships with industry leaders, Boston Children's aims to expand access to its pediatric services and expertise.
Brigham and Women's Hospital's Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (Boston). Brigham and Women's Hospital launched its innovation hub in 2013 to help the hospital's clinicians, scientists and employees advance their ideas for improving care. The Brigham Digital Innovation Hub, also called iHub, has a digital health consulting team of about five employees supporting new ideas and collaborations with organizations such as Microsoft, Redox and Harvard Business School. The innovation hub has led hackathons in the hospital to develop solutions to challenges in pulmonary, surgery and radiology services, among other clinical areas.
Children's Hospital Colorado's Center for Innovation (Aurora). At the Center for Innovation, Children's Hospital Colorado's faculty, staff and administrators are encouraged to develop ideas to improve pediatric care worldwide. The center has aimed to stimulate innovations in drugs, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies since its inception in 2016. The Center for Innovation gains technical expertise to address patient care challenges, as well as the ability to test existing prototypes and concepts in an authentic healthcare environment, through strategic industry alliances.
The Innovation Studio at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. The Innovation Studio at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles convenes internal and external communities to design, incubate, accelerate and operationalize new processes and technologies that solve complex problems and transform care delivery models in pediatrics. The studio uses human centered design methodologies to incubate digital health solutions focused on virtual care, social determinants of health, artificial intelligence, voice recognition, virtual & augmented reality, digital therapeutics and more. The studio also houses the West Coast Consortium for Technology and Innovation in Pediatrics, which guides pediatric medical device innovators from ideation through commercialization, and comprises a portfolio of more than 125 companies.
Children's National Health System's Bear Institute (Washington, D.C.). The Bear Institute was established in 2013 through a partnership between Children's National Health System and Cerner. By harnessing insights from health IT, the Bear Institute has improved workflow efficiency, created hospital navigation and trauma documentation solutions, standardized the care process, and enhanced the patient experience with advanced scheduling tools. As a result of the Bear Institute's efforts to digitize the organization, Children's National Health System has reduced its annual IT costs by $1 million.
CHOC Children's Sharon Disney Lund Medical Intelligence and Innovation Institute (Orange, Calif.). CHOC Children's MI3 is a pediatric innovation institute seeking to develop treatments that could revolutionize pediatric medicine. MI3 offers a summer internship program to anyone with an interest in the healthcare field. CHOC Children's has more than 50 mentors to offer insights into a variety of pediatric medicine specialties, including genomic medicine, personalized medicine and regenerative medicine, among others.
Cleveland Clinic Innovations. Founded in 2000, Cleveland Clinic Innovations works with its robust provider network to create patient-benefiting medical products and companies. CCI partners with several healthcare institutions through its Healthcare Innovations Alliance and holds an annual Medical Innovation Summit to share its findings with other innovation leaders. In September, CCI partnered with artificial intelligence startup Petuum to submit an AI-powered diagnostic tool to the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE challenge.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Center for Surgical Innovation (Lebanon, N.H.). A joint venture between Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Center for Surgical Innovation specializes in improving the surgical process. The center focuses on imaging innovation. CSI opened in 2013 and contains two operating rooms and two procedure rooms. The center was funded through a wide array of sources, led by the National Institutes of Health.
El Camino Hospital's Fogarty Institute for Innovation (Mountain View, Calif.). Founded by Thomas Fogarty, MD, the Fogarty Institute provides both educational and incubation opportunities to entrepreneurs. The institute offers healthcare leaders several opportunities through its robust fellowship programs, including the Lefteroff, Ferolyn and FDA fellowships. The institute leverages its relationship with El Camino Hospital to offer both clinical and research opportunities.
Florida Hospital's Innovation Lab (Orlando). Florida Hospital's Innovation Lab serves as an incubator space for the hospital's providers to work on improving the hospital's services. Formed in January 2012, the innovation lab is an independent venture. Physicians, nurses, directors and administrators can bring ideas for improvement to the lab and work together on process improvement. Lab participants have tackled critical aspects of healthcare delivery such as staff responsiveness, medication administration and equipment allotment in the lab.
Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin's Inception Health (Milwaukee). Bringing together health, education and business entities, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin's Inception Health is driving innovation through collaboration. The group's work focuses on the Milwaukee market as well as larger, nationwide efforts. Inception Health partnered with the Avia Innovator Network in 2016 to advance the consumer experience in the healthcare delivery process.
Geisinger's Steele Institute for Healthcare Innovation (Danville, Pa.). Geisinger's Steele Institute for Healthcare Innovation program has spurred a variety of projects, including the MyCode Community Health Initiative, Fresh Food Farmacy and Springboard Healthy Scranton. The institute focuses on improving patient experience, quality, efficiency and outcomes. The center selected an artificial intelligence partner in Jvion to attempt to solve some of its biggest challenges in July.
Hartford (Conn.) Hospital's Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation. Hartford Hospital's innovation center is a national training site and the second largest surgical center in New England. The center features Connecticut's first simulation center, which has evolved into the Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation. The center promotes innovation through its work with the community, including students and service members.
Henry Ford Innovation Institute (Detroit). Focused on developing and commercializing new businesses, the Henry Ford Innovation Institute offers clinician leaders an opportunity to develop devices and therapies. The institute was founded in 2012 because of Henry Ford Health System committing to expanded research opportunities. Notably, the institute has its own fellowship program to recruit and develop clinician leaders.
Holy Name Medical Center Institute for Simulation Learning (Teaneck, N.J.). The Russell Berrie Institute for Simulation Learning at Holy Name Medical Center gives healthcare providers the opportunity to develop innovative approaches to patient care in a safe environment. The center offers a robust simulation lab and connects the public and clinicians for training opportunities. Instructors at the institute use both computer-controlled technology and standardized patient actors to help clinicians, students and administrators improve performance. The institute is an American Heart Association authorized training center.
Hospital for Special Surgery's Global Innovation Institute (New York City). Built around the Life Sciences Innovation Center and the Care Delivery Innovation Center, Hospital for Special Surgery's Global Innovation Institute is centered around developing and delivering innovative therapies. The center touts 33 products in its portfolio, including a personalized health management tool, an implant for platelet-rich plasma retention and a revision knee system. The institute recently partnered with Boston Biomotion for injury recovery innovation.
Inspira Health Network Innovation Center (Mullica Hill, N.J.). Inspira launched its innovation center in June 2017 to develop and implement patient-focused technologies. The center features a patient room as well as a series of prototype technologies. To fund the center, Inspira established a $1 million startup fund that is used to support innovators through the various development stages. Over the past year, the fund supported a series of programs including Health+ technology bars, a Capacity Command Center and a Health Hack. Inspira is also developing a simulation center, where virtual reality will be used to test concepts, technology and education.
Intermountain Healthcare's Healthcare Transformation Lab (Murray, Utah). Intermountain Healthcare's transformation lab is at the heart of Intermountain, inviting the community and local businesses to partner and transform care delivery. The lab is strategically positioned between the medical center and the Center for Medical Informatics to accommodate clinicians and innovators from several rounds. Intermountain also has a robust simulation center.
Jefferson Accelerator Zone (Philadelphia). Known as "JAZ," the Jefferson Accelerator Zone is the center of innovation at Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health. JAZ hosts several events, including Jefferson Health's Innovation Engagement Speaker Series. The series, which ran from January through April 2018, featured executives from Jefferson and Independence Blue Cross. Jefferson also hosts its annual "JAZ Tank" competition in the center, a "Shark Tank"-esque competition that most recently gave two $10,000 awards to developers of behavioral health apps and portable circadian lights aimed at omitting light pollution in patient rooms.
Johns Hopkins Medicine's Sibley Innovation Hub (Washington, D.C.). Uniting patients, families, staff, physicians and corporate partners in one space, the Sibley Innovation Hub is working to transform care at Johns Hopkins. The center is deeply committed to human-centered design, which is based on three guiding principles: listen, imagine and do. Several of the center's innovations are present throughout the hospital, including "about me" boards and tranquility rooms.
Kaiser Permanente Garfield Innovation Center (San Leandro, Calif.). The Kaiser Permanente Garfield Innovation Center was created in 2005 and is named for Sidney Garfield, MD, the founding physician of Kaiser Permanente. The center continues Dr. Garfield's vision of not only treating the ill, but helping patients maintain a healthy lifestyle. Jennifer Liebermann is the founding director of the center, and under her leadership the center has grown to host 200 to 300 innovation projects annually. Recent projects include technology that could enable real-time, personalized telehealth care and protocols that can help improve safety.
Massachusetts General Hospital's John D. Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation (Boston). Massachusetts General Hospital founded its innovation center in 2000 to focus on improving primary care. In addition to piloting innovation programs, the Stoeckle Center offers educational workshops and training opportunities for clinicians at Mass General and other Partners HealthCare primary care practices. The center also facilitates the Crimson Care Collaborative, which partners medical students with faculty to provide care to patients without a primary care provider.
Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation (Rochester, Minn.). Mayo's Center for Innovation combines design thinking principles with the scientific method to create patient-centered healthcare delivery solutions. Within the Center for Innovation is the Multidisciplinary Design Clinic, which brings providers and patients together to experiment with new care model prototypes. Each year, the center holds its Transform Conference, which brings innovative healthcare leaders together for breakout sessions, workshops and keynotes.
MedStar Institute for Innovation (Washington, D.C.). The Institute for Innovation was chartered in 2009 and is led by Mark S. Smith, MD. The institute has developed numerous capabilities for MedStar, such as the National Center for Human Factors in Healthcare, which optimizes care systems and processes to best complement human behavior. The institute also developed the MedStar Simulation Training and Education Lab, which combines interactive online training, 3D virtual simulations and hands-on learning for all MedStar associates.
MD Anderson Cancer Center's Strategic Industry Ventures (Houston). Strategic Industry Ventures collaborates with MD Anderson Cancer Center faculty to form strategic alliances and partnerships with various companies. These connections are forged with the goal of bringing innovative new drugs, diagnostics, devices, imaging agents and information solutions to market. Strategic Industry Ventures also controls the Office of Technology Commercialization, which establishes licensing agreements for ideas developed by MD Anderson faculty members.
MD Anderson Innovation Center (Houston). The Innovation Center combines human-centered design principals with real-world health care needs to create transformational change by identifying innovative ideas and unique solutions to problems. The Innovation Center works alongside MD Anderson clinicians, researchers, patients and operational leaders using observation techniques, stakeholder interviews and market research to understand how to develop the next generation of digital technology solutions and to design groundbreaking user experiences. Recent initiatives include designing the “Clinic of the Future”, a “Vision for Connected Care” and enabling these with transformative digital solutions co-developed and commercialized with startup and industry partners.
Memorial Sloan Kettering Department of Strategy & Innovation (New York City). The multidisciplinary team at Memorial Sloan Kettering's Department of Strategy & Innovation focuses on human-centered hardware, software and web solutions that can connect people to care. Recent developments include the Memorial Sloan Kettering mobile app, which allows patients to manage appointments and view test results. The innovation team also helped design new service models at the Brooklyn Infusion Center, which does not have a traditional waiting room, and the Clinic of the Future, which features innovative design concepts such as collaborative team workroom spaces.
Montefiore Einstein Center for Innovation in Simulation (Bronx, N.Y.). The center was founded in 2014 as a partnership between Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, also based in the Bronx. It is a multidisciplinary training environment to help strengthen learning procedures for medical professionals at all stages of their careers. Utilizing several types of virtual simulation technology, the center helps prepare clinical teams to manage critical scenarios.
Mount Sinai Innovation Partners (New York City). Mount Sinai's innovation department includes the i3 Asset Accelerator, which helps system staff turn research ideas and discoveries into marketable technologies. All funded projects are directly overseen by a project manager as well as outside experts from the pharmaceutical, biotech, venture capital and biomedical sectors. Mount Sinai Innovation Partners also manages an internal business unit, Blue Mountain Technologies, which brings the system's portfolio invention to market through commercial partnerships.
Nationwide Children's Hospital's Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice (Columbus, Ohio). Nationwide Children's Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice aims to develop IT and communication technologies for pediatric patients in healthcare settings as well as conduct research to improve care and test the cost-effectiveness of new technologies. The center seeks to research groundbreaking methods for delivering quality healthcare to children. The health system also includes the Center for Surgical Outcomes Research and the Center for Population Health and Equity Research to examine innovation in chronic care management and approaches to population health.
Nemours Children's Health System's Center for Healthcare Delivery Innovation (Orlando, Fla.). The Center for Healthcare Delivery Innovation was formed in 2016 with a commitment to treat the whole child through prevention, population health and clinical care by using design thinking and agile methodologies. The innovation team developed the Nemours App for Asthma, which helps families manage pediatric asthma and connects them with clinicians. The center plans to apply a similar platform to other chronic conditions.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals' NYP Innovation Center. The NYP Innovation Center comprises two teams: the emerging technology and transformation team and the digital health team. Its portfolio of innovation projects includes the NYP OnDemand platform, which facilitates telehealth urgent care consult and easily accessible online second opinions. The center's innovators also developed NYP TechStop, which brings real-time tech support to NewYork-Presbyterian staff and patients all over the system.
NorthShore University HealthSystem's Grainger Center for Simulation and Innovation (Evanston, Ill.). The system's simulation center is hosted in a 13,000-square-foot facility at NorthShore Evanston (Ill.) Hospital that provides simulated crisis case management training for clinical teams. The surgical simulation program is led by Michael Ujiki, MD, and advances minimally invasive surgery techniques while training surgeons in the newest technologies.
Northwestern Medicine's Center for Primary Care Innovation (Evanston, Ill.). The Center for Primary Care Innovation at Northwestern Medicine aims to develop ways to transform traditional primary care delivery. The center gives participants space to test innovative methods of improving care delivery and promoting innovative best practice adoption. Faculty of the center have access to the Primary Care Faculty Research Catalyzer, funded by Northwestern's Feinberg School of Medicine Global Health Initiative, which has supported projects on health information technology, communication, care system redesign and reducing disparities in healthcare.
NYU Langone Health Tech Hub (New York City). NYU Langone Health launched its NYU Langone Health Tech Hub in 2017 as a centralized resource for inventors within and outside the health system to share ideas. NYU Langone hosts several makerthons, during which a team is presented with a technical problem and asked to solve it in a weekend, as well as an annual health tech symposium. NYU Langone Health has received several prestigious awards for its innovation program, including the 2018 HIMSS Nicholas E. Davies Award, the 2018 Salesforce Trailblazer Award and the 2017 Health Care's Most Wired recognition.
Ochsner Health System's innovationOchsner (New Orleans). InnovationOchsner is a think tank, innovation lab and healthcare technology company. Launched in 2015, iO brings the latest technology to patients at its "O Bar," where patients can test more than 300 physician-approved apps next to technical support staff. Ochsner's innovation center has collaborations with companies like Apple and GE Healthcare, with the former allowing the health system to become one of the first to use Apple Watch for chronic condition monitoring. InnovationOchsner is developing tools to monitor failing eyesight and specialized inhalers for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.
Orlando (Fla.) Health Strategic Innovations. Orlando Health unveiled its Orlando Health Strategic Innovations initiative in 2017 to transform ideas into commercial business or products and spread new technological concepts throughout the system. Team members work with physicians in Orlando Health Strategic Innovations' Foundry program, an eight-week incubator process, to create, test and introduce medical products. The program has a $20 million venture fund to invest in external healthcare and technology firms. Notable innovations from the Foundry program's first year include a writing tool sterilization device and a radiation dosage estimator.
OSF HealthCare's OSF Innovation (Peoria, Ill.). Whether through its co-founded Chicago-based incubator MATTER or partners like provider-led Avia, OSF HealthCare's OSF Innovation focuses on incubating and engineering clinical ideas. The innovation program has its own OSF Ventures unit, which invests primarily in companies' Series A and B funding rounds. In 2018, OSF Innovation piloted its Epharmix program, which contacts chronically ill patients through text messages or phone calls with checkup reminders. Of the 200 patients in the pilot, about 70 percent enrolled in the program, and 78 percent of enrollees actively engaged with the platform.
Parkview Health's Mirro Center for Research and Innovation (Fort Wayne, Ind.). Parkview Research Center's 25-year history continues today through the Mirro Center, dedicated to developing and commercializing clinical solutions. The Parkview Mirro Center for Research and Innovation is named after cardiologist Michael Mirro, MD, who, along with Jeanne Mirro, donated the center's lead gift. The center comprises three simulation labs, where clinicians respond to varying clinical situations administered to a manikin by a technician. The encounters are recorded and reviewed by physicians during debrief sessions.
Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation (Philadelphia). The Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation comprises three distinct entities: the incubator-esque Acceleration Lab, the Nudge Unit for clinical reminders and its Center for Digital Health. Penn Medicine's Medical Device Accelerator program accepts applications for creating general, neurological devices, delivery platforms for drug and gene therapy and sensors. The 2017 accelerator program participants plan to create technology to deliver localized chemotherapy and catheter-directed laser tumor ablation to patients, as well as instruments to simplify meniscal and cartilage transplants.
Penn State Children's Hospital's Pediatric Innovation Program (Hershey, Pa.). Penn State Children's Hospital, Penn State University in State College and industrial partners collaborated to launch the Pediatric Innovation Program. Several products have been developed and disseminated from the program, including the Hug 'n' Snug Neonatal Chest Splint, a stabilizing wrap allowing babies to breathe easier, and the Naso Oral Respiratory Interface (NORI) system, which secures babies' breathing tubes. The Pediatric Innovation Program also trains students through its partnership with the Penn State College of Engineering and the Smeal College of Business at Penn State.
Piedmont Innovation Program (Atlanta). Piedmont Healthcare launched its systemwide Piedmont Innovation Program in 2015. It works with the Global Center for Medical Innovation at Atlanta-based Georgia Tech, with the center providing Piedmont design and engineering support to turn ideas into prototypes. Wheelchair adaptation, a heart device and a gastroenterology device are among the products incubated in the Piedmont Innovation Program. Piedmont Healthcare reduced hospital-acquired infections by 40 percent in fiscal year 2017 with the help of its predictive analytics platform and real-time infection tracking.
ProMedica Innovations (Toledo, Ohio). Since 2012, ProMedica has grown to support more than 70,000 employees through patent searches, clinical testing, beta testing and prototype engineering. ProMedica has created at least 65 jobs through its innovation program, attracted $40 million in venture capital funds, launched four companies and issued three patents, with an additional 23 patent applications up for review. Products incubated in ProMedica's Innovations lab are being used in more than 25 states, as well as internationally.
St. Luke's Technology Ventures (Bethlehem, Pa.). In 2015, St. Luke's University Health Network rolled out its innovation program, St. Luke's Technology Ventures. The program encompasses patient quality and care developments and applies them in St. Luke's 10 hospitals and more than 315 care locations. St. Luke's Technology Ventures is piloting new technology aimed at providing a look into real-time movement in its emergency room and online mental health tools.
Sutter Health Innovation Hatchery (Sacramento, Calif.). The Sutter Health Design and Innovation team looks to generate opportunities for access, efficiencies and creative solutions that fulfill the system's mission of enhancing the well-being of people in the communities they serve. Some recent projects include message sharing for new mothers who often experience an emotional dips in the weeks after childbirth.
Spectrum Health Innovations (Grand Rapids, Mich.). Spectrum Health unveiled its innovation program in 2010. Alongside physicians, university and industry partners develop medical devices, surgical tools, nursing products and software. Since its start, the program has generated five usable products, nine active patents, 10 active licenses, six startup companies and six awards totaling $920,000. It has been recognized at several university-based competitions, including Mount Pleasant-based Central Michigan University's New Venture Competition and Fort Worth-based Texas Christian University's Values and Ventures Competition.
The Innovation Institute (La Palma, Calif.). Six health systems own the Innovation Institute, a for-profit incubator collaborating with providers, employees and the public to bring ideas to market: Renton, Wash.-based Providence St. Joseph Health; Marriottsville, Md.-based Bon Secours Mercy Health; Children's Hospital Orange (Calif.) County; Baton Rouge, La.-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady; and Avera Health in Sioux Falls, S.D. With a 19-state footprint, the Innovation Institute has grown from five employees to 700 and generated $268 million in revenue in 2018.
UCHealth CARE Innovation Center (Aurora, Colo.). Richard Zane, MD, UCHealth chief innovation officer, and Steven Hess, chief information officer, head of the CARE Innovation Center Applied Decision Science Lab, launched the UCHealth CARE Innovation Center in 2017. The center aims to revolutionize healthcare with leading industry and startup partners. The center provides a platform for company collaboration in healthcare delivery, medical informatics and analytics, implementation science, clinical innovation and human capital.
University of Colorado Hospital's Center for Surgical Innovation (Denver). The Center for Surgical Innovation offers an advanced educational course on surgical techniques and up-and-coming technologies. The center was created as a local, national and international center of excellence in evolving the field of surgery. Its comprehensive, multidisciplinary faculty covers 15 surgical specialties and state-of-the art facilities include a modern cadaver laboratory and conference rooms.
University of California San Francisco's Center for Digital Health Innovation. The UCSF Center for Digital Health Innovation helps innovators with resources to test and validate new technologies and integrate them in clinical environments. It also designs digital education for the next generation of health leaders. The center's external partnerships can help turn ideas into reality. The program's portfolio includes projects focused on such issues as team-based communications for diabetes care and its mobile health group collaborates with UCSF researchers and clinicians to create apps.
University of California's Center for Health Quality and Innovation (Oakland). The University of California's Center for Health Quality and Innovation focuses on UC Health innovations to enhance quality, access and value in healthcare delivery systems. Launched in 2010, the center offers many grants, touching on such topics as improving care to surgical patients. In partnership with Healthforce Center at UCSF, the innovation center offers leadership and change management training. The center has hosted five colloquiums.
University Hospitals' Harrington Discovery Institute (Cleveland). The Harrington Discovery Institute is a key component of the Harrington Project for Discovery & Development. The Harrington Discovery Institute's international mission supports physician-scientists as they turn discoveries into medicine. It offers such programs as Harrington Scholar-Innovator, Gund-Harrington, ADDF-Harrington and Oxford-Harrington. The Harrington Project for Discovery & Development partners with the BioMotiv pharmaceutical accelerator to turn breakthrough discoveries into human therapeutics.
UNC Center for Health Innovation (Chapel Hill). UNC Center for Health Innovation focuses on creating patient-centered advancements in healthcare delivery and financing. The center is designed to initiate, evaluate, disseminate and support innovation adoption to improve outcomes and reduce costs. The innovation center has partnered with AARP on a Digital Health Innovation Sprint focused on digital solutions for medication scheduling in older patients. This year the center is working with Apple on allowing patients access to their health record on the iPhone Health app. It also offers an annual Innovation Pilot Award that provides funding to UNC Health Care and UNC School of Medicine employees for their healthcare innovations.
UnityPoint Health Innovation Center (West Des Moines, Iowa). The UnityPoint Health Innovation Center aims to empower and encourage team members to share ideas and propose efficiencies, processes and technologies that support the health system’s vision of providing a differentiated and personalized experience to patients. The innovation center focuses on driving a culture where all 30,000 team members feel accountable and energized to challenge the status quo and positively disrupt how things have been done within the industry. In 2018, UnityPoint Health Innovation Center won Optum's Inspiration in Healthcare Award.
University of Utah Spark Health Innovation Lab (Salt Lake City). Geared toward a human-center approach, Spark Health Innovation Lab allows students to design solutions for a better healthcare experience. The lab was established in 2011 out of the University of Utah Patient Experience Think Tank, during which a student suggested creating an "ecosystem [of] innovation at the U with a patient-center focus." Technology Venture Development, Eccles Health Sciences Library and the University Hospital launched the lab to advance contributing projects such as precision medicine and cataract surgery education.
University of Missouri's Tiger Institute for Health Innovation (Columbia). Established in 2009 by Gary Forsee, former University of Missouri System president, and Neal Patterson, Cerner Corp. CEO, the Tiger Institute for Health Innovations aims to create a national model for patient care and lower healthcare costs. The institute houses the Edge and Living Lab teams, which focus on implementing improvements to EHR solutions and clinical workflow, while also advancing innovations through the Tiger Institute Research effort, value creation office and population health team.
UPMC Enterprises (Pittsburgh). UPMC Enterprises excels in four main areas: translation science, outcome improvements, consumerism and infrastructure and efficiencies. The center works with individuals and teams with business plans, early stage companies, venture funds and established companies to help innovate healthcare. UPMC Enterprises' portfolio includes such companies as Health Fidelity, Health Catalyst and Evolent Health.
UT Southwestern Medical Center Office for Technology Development at BioCenter (Dallas). UT Southwestern Medical Center has licensed intellectual property to support biomedical innovation for more than 40 years. UT Southwestern ranks No. 5 in the world in number of published research articles cited as significant sources in third-party patent applications. The Office for Technology Development comprises four divisions: technology commercialization, cooperative and sponsored research, venture development and financial management.
Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Wake Forest Innovations (Winston-Salem, N.C.). The Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center is split between two centers: the Center for Innovation and Commercialization helps advance the development and commercialization of inventions, while the Center for Industry Research Collaboration accelerates access to clinical and research capabilities. In 2015, the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center created the Catalyst Fund, a $15 million technology development program. The medical center also created various startups, including KeraNetics, which merged this year with microchip implant maker Microchips Biotech Inc. to form Keratin Biosciences, and FiberCell.