Becker's Hospital Review

27 INNOVATION 'At Stanford, it's a team sport': How Eric Yablonka is fostering innovation with Silicon Valley in his backyard By Mackenzie Garrity W ithin healthcare, technology has a purpose: to improve patient care. At Stanford (Calif.) Health Care, CIO Eric Yablonka is focused on leveraging technology to improve the patient and clini- cian experience. Most recently, the health system opened its Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. e new $2.1 billion hospital incorporates user experi- ence ideas for Apple. Specifically, the Stanford Hospital features robots that package prescriptions. Automat- ed guided vehicles assist with laundry de- livery and trash disposal. Sensors track staff and equipment to enhance inventory control and efficiency. Physicians and nurses can leverage remote monitoring tools from a single location. e Stanford Hospital also plans to use two pa- tient rooms to test a bedside computer-vi- sion system. Below, Mr. Yablonka discusses what it's like to work in Silicon Valley as well as his dedica- tion to academic medicine. Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edit- ed for clarity and length. Question: What has it been like work- ing at Stanford with Silicon Valley in your backyard? Eric Yablonka: Even if Silicon Valley wasn't in our backyard, Stanford is an amazing place. It's a top-notch academic organization with an incredible medical school and health systems. Being in Silicon Valley, makes it even more interesting in the sense that many of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and business ex- ecutives have gone to Stanford. In turn, they continue to have a relationship with Stanford. We get exposed to a lot of interesting ideas, innovations and other technologies that are thought provoking. It's a stimulating environ- ment that is exciting to work in. Q: How do you foster collaboration and innovation among clinicians? EY: At Stanford, it's a team sport. Most re- cently we unified the school of medicine IT group with the Stanford Health Care IT group. We believe that this will foster collab- oration and innovation among clinicians at a higher level. Now that we can support clini- cians with research, teaching or patient care, we think it'll bring enhanced coordination and alignment. Specifically, in regard to tech- nology, this initiative will allow us to realign our ecosystem with less friction because we are in one IT group. is should enable col- laboration in new ways. Q: Some CIOs say the hardest part about the job relates to relation- ships/culture, not technology. Do you agree? EY: Healthcare is definitely a people busi- ness. While technology underpins almost everything we do today, people and patients in healthcare still come first. Although many patients appreciate technology that supports their care, most of them are very interested in working directly with their physician and care team. We can never forget that a large part of our responsibility is around change management and how we successfully de- ploy and adopt technology. is adoption and deployment is not a technology exer- cise, rather a people exercise. Almost all CIOs recognize that we need to engage our healthcare organizations and our clinical leader and support them through the chang- es that technology brings. Q: What motivated you to continue within the academic medical space? EY: I really believe strongly in the three mis- sions of academic healthcare: research, teach- ing and patient care. I enjoy the innovation and discovery in organizations like Stanford. ere is also a layer of complexity to the challenges that we are dealing with, which is interesting and fulfilling. I believe that aca- demic medical centers have a very important place in the healthcare ecosystem, and places like Stanford are leaders in this space. Q: When faced with a challenge, how do you overcome it? Whether it be professionally or personally. EY: ere are always challenges. is is how life goes. For most of us, we don't shy away from challenges. Leaders have to take them on and understand that it's always one foot in front of the other. It doesn't matter if the chal- lenges are long-term and difficult or more emergent in nature, it's important to see them through. People who work in healthcare are oriented to take these complex, large-scale challenges head on and do what's right. It's why all of us work in healthcare. n Cleveland Clinic to split $1B donation for research from Lord Foundation By Jackie Drees C leveland Clinic, Duke University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Southern California will each receive $261 million for medical education and research from the sale of Lord Corp., a private technology and manufacturing company, according to a Nov. 13 news release. In the 1980s, Lord, a manufacturing company that develops motion manage- ment devices, adhesives and sensing technologies, formed four separate foun- dations to support research efforts at Cleveland Clinic, Durham, N.C.-based Duke University, Boston-based MIT and Los Angeles-based USC. Since estab- lishing the foundations, the organizations have received around $200 million each. Lord was purchased by Parker Hannifin Corp. for $3.6 billion in October. The $1 billion donation will be split evenly among the four healthcare organizations. "Cleveland Clinic was founded on the ideal that innovation, research and teaching are integral components of patient care," said Tom Mihaljevic, MD, CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic. "The Lord Foundation's generous dis- tributions allow us to continue tackling today's most complex medical chal- lenges, discovering the next breakthroughs and improving lives worldwide." n

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