In assessing specific needs for innovation, The Innovation Institute collaborates with its member owner health systems regularly to determine what their most pressing needs are. It is most often found that the biggest need is to cut costs and boost hospital efficiency.
Expansion, embracing change, seeking new opportunities, and innovation are a way of life for successful health systems today. Innovation, the process of creating or managing new ideas, methods, and technologies to vitalize existing services and to develop new ones, is stimulated by a strong awareness of the needs of those we serve, and thrives in an organization that promotes new approaches to health care delivery.
Innovative organizations commit to resources necessary for research, development and for change, while recognizing that not all new efforts will succeed.
More Patient Comfort, Less Pain
The Innovation Institute member owner health systems are nonprofits with similar missions and values, all with a keen focus on creating comfort, compassionate care, human dignity, and sensitivity, especially to those patients in most need. Therefore, technology that ensures the human touch is critical. Being able to have the sensitivity to perceive what the patient is feeling and experiencing is important in determining which technologies to pursue.
Quality, Safety, Precision, Reduced Risk
Ensuring quality and safety involves precision in design and adherence to procedures that reduce risk. An example of this is the invention of a respirator valve that protects vulnerable patients from ventilator-associated pneumonia. It also protects the caregiver from risk of infection from opening of the ventilator circuit, while providing the patient with optimal inhalation velocity.
There is a demand for more fail-safe procedures for both the patient and caregiver. This medical device was invented by a cardiologist and a registered respiratory therapist who worked together to create a better solution.
Easy to Use and Implement
Simplicity and ease of use must be part of the product design. Take for example, the feeding tube, a great invention and life saver. However, there is room for error. When nutrients intended for the gastrointestinal tract are carelessly delivered to the vasculature, this mistake can cause death by embolus or sepsis. Therefore, the FDA recommended that connectors and adaptors be made with built-in incompatibility to prevent misconnections.
Lean and Efficient – Low Cost — Saves Money
As The Innovation Institute team strives to develop lean, efficient, low-cost patient care solutions, it is faced with obstacles that can interfere with their mission to do more with less. The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) has launched a campaign to protect innovation and advance life-changing research. AdvaMed has created an innovation agenda that calls for:
- Improving the FDA’s regulatory processes to reduce the cost and time to develop and approve new medical devices.
- Restructuring CMS’s coverage and payment process to support development of new technologies.
- Reforming the U.S. tax system to create a level playing field starting with the repeal of the medical device excise tax.
- .Improving access to international markets to achieve innovation-friendly regulatory and payment policies.
- Supporting the maintenance and growth of an R& D infrastructure.
Technologies that have the potential to save lives must be affordable and efficient. The Institute’s Innovation Lab exists to promote and embrace new, advanced medical technologies that are more lean and efficient than what currently exists across U.S. hospitals today. As a health care product incubator, the Innovation Lab is tasked with providing health systems with the tools and support they need to move forward with better, more cost-efficient technologies, serving as the catalyst for breakthroughs and transformation in health care.