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39 INNOVATION 'Our innovation initiatives really helped prepare us for taking care of our patients' during the pandemic: Insights from Houston Methodist's Michelle Stansbury By Laura Dyrda M ichelle Stansbury, vice president of innovation at Houston Methodist, sees digital health technology and innovation as integral aspects of the health system's strategy to treat patients today and post-pandemic. Here, she discusses her team's responsibilities as the health system cares for patients with COVID-19 and how she expects healthcare delivery to change over the coming months. Question: What are your top priorities during the COVID-19 pandemic? Michelle Stansbury: Taking care of our patients and our staff. is is unprecedented times, and it's amazing to see how our staff have tirelessly made themselves available to care for these individuals who have gotten the COVID virus. Q: What are your top concerns heading into the next 30 days? MS: Now that healthcare systems can begin to provide more ser- vices over the coming weeks, it will be important that we protect our staff and patients to ensure the virus doesn't spread. is will mean increased monitoring and protective measures that we hadn't previously done before the pandemic. Q: How will the pandemic affect your strategy and areas of focus in the next 6 to 12 months? MS: Our innovation initiatives really helped prepare us for taking care of our patients. We had already started providing telehealth visits as well as implemented virtual ICU in our main hospital. We quickly were able to train several hundred of our clinicians to pro- vide virtual care, and we are now planning to expand our virtual ICU plans across our health system. Our virtual visits averaged around 50 per day and they are now averaging over 2,000 per day. Virtual care is here to stay, and we are working to expand our capabilities. Q: How do you think COVID-19 will change healthcare delivery, and what can health systems do to prepare? MS: We greatly benefited from our innovation initiatives, and I be- lieve health systems should look at how digital health technology can change the way they treat patients. n Dignity Health hospitals open on-site grocery store for essential workers By Laura Dyrda D ignity Health's six Southern California hospitals have found an innovative solution for employees to shop for groceries safely. In partnership with distributors including U.S. Foods, the hospitals converted sections of their facilities, including part of the coffee shop at Northridge Hospital Medical Center, into a mini-mart that sells items at cost to employees. Essential healthcare workers may shop for groceries, in- cluding food, cleaning supplies and hygiene items, any time of the day. This is important because many of the local grocery stores have modified hours and may not be open when the workers are off from their shift. "I am so proud of the continued dedication of the entire Northridge Hospital family and hope this program pro- vides more time for our staff and physicians to spend at home with their families instead of venturing out to the store," said Paul Watkins, NHMC president. "The commu- nity support has been overwhelming and if we can help one another, even with simple things like groceries, we will get through this, together." On the first day that the on-site grocery store opened at Glen- dale Memorial Hospital, it served more than 100 people. n Microsoft hires new healthcare exec: 3 details By Laura Dyrda M icrosoft named the former CEO of GE Health- care's imaging business its new corporate vice president for healthcare, according to CNBC. Three things to know: 1. Tom McGuiness is the new head of Microsoft's health- care vertical, which it has significantly expanded in recent years and sees as a big growth opportunity for its cloud offerings. He is taking the place of Peter Lee, who now leads Microsoft Research. 2. Microsoft announced the hiring of Mr. McGuiness April 21. He is responsible for working with the company's hospital partners, payers and life sciences companies. 3. There has been an increased demand for Microsoft's cloud services in the healthcare space and it recently devel- oped chatbot technology to help recruit patients who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate plasma that could be used for treating other patients with the disease. n