Becker's Hospital Review

57 INNOVATION ble and equitable way. For instance, now that so many patients have had exposure to virtual visits, can we create new products with new payment models — like subscriptions — or even new communication or health education models, to serve patients in different, more relevant ways. e degrees of freedom are open- ing up and it's incumbent upon us to seize them. Speaking of equity, if COVID-19 has taught us anything, it's that our integrity and ethical commitment to our communities for years to come will be judged by how well we achieve health eq- uity in all its forms. Digital has tremendous potential to advance health equity, but first health systems, entrepreneurs, and digital health companies have to learn how to design and build for broad- er groups of people or everyone suffers. Historically, many groups have oen been excluded from the benefits of digital products and COVID-19 has shown us the consequences of those actions. Richard Zane, MD. Chief Innovation Officer at UCHealth (Aurora, Colo.): I think the most important thing when we talk about health IT and the concept of delivering healthcare is that we need to stop separating the two and putting them in silos. It is simply part and parcel of the way we deliver care. Just like banking, just like investment management, just like the air- lines, just like anything else — we could not see ourselves as separating out IT from our core businesses. e way in which we deliver care is organized around an IT platform, and that's how we deliver care. Lisa Prasad. Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Henry Ford Health System (Detroit): I would like to see increased leveraging of technology and analytics to enhance remote care and education, and to promote healthcare equity across our community. is requires us to think critically not only about creating new products, services and payment mod- els, but also about implementing them in a way that promotes inclusion and access. Tom Andriola. Vice Chancellor of IT and Data at the Univer- sity of California, Irvine: We're certainly not through this, but there is a glimmer of light on the horizon in what we could call "a post-pandemic world." I think now we need to return to bimodal thinking and realize in the near term we still need to adapt to what COVID-19 throws at us. At the same time, we cannot shy away from the conversation we need to be having at the leader- ship level about the "new normal," what we've tried and learned during this horrible period, and which aspects do we want to keep in place in the new normal. It's been a unique situation in that we've stepped into our fu- ture to deal with these unique set of circumstances, and now we have this opportunity to step back from our future, discuss what we've been through, what in it has been better, (and what has not) and then strategically decide what stays in place in the post-pandemic world. It just doesn't normally play out this way, so we'd better take advantage of it. Albert Chan, MD. Chief of Digital Patient Experience at Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.): It's clear we've em- braced the next normal. Virtual care has quickly become an important touchstone for our patients. It also is destined to play a larger role in the care we provide to our commu- nities across our integrated network. As we look ahead to new care models, we remain focused on building our digital health capabilities in a way that adds value to the patient and care team experience. Technology will continue to enhance human connection. n Cedars-Sinai adds 7 startups to innovation accelerator By Jackie Drees L os Angeles-based Ce- dars-Sinai Medical Cen- ter's accelerator select- ed seven health tech startups to join its innovation class. Teams from each of the health IT companies will spend three months working virtually with Cedars-Sinai's physicians, researchers and administrators on their proj- ects, rather than collaborat- ing in person at the health system's innovation offices. The accelerator, in its fifth year, gives businesses ac- cepted into the program a $50,000 investment and ac- cess to Cedars-Sinai mentors. The seven companies are: • Butterfly Health • Dieta Health • Diligent Robotics • Dock Health • Fathom • Repisodic • Upside Health n Google opening office in Minnesota to advance Mayo Clinic partnership: 5 details By Jackie Drees G oogle plans to open its first office in Minnesota as part of its ongoing health partnership with Rochester-based Mayo Clinic, according to a Feb. 18 Star Tribune report. Five details: 1. Google and Mayo Clinic partnered in September 2019 on a 10-year cloud computing, machine learning and artificial in- telligence collaboration to advance the health system's health- care innovation and virtual care initiatives. 2. The office, located at Collider Coworking in downtown Rochester, will employ a "solid handful" of people, Google Cloud software engineer and site lead Chris Mueller told the publication. 3. Mr. Mueller did not provide any additional figures for initial or future staffing at the office, slated to open this year. 4. Since forming the partnership, Mayo Clinic and Google have launched the Mayo Clinic Platform, which is a portfolio of plat- form ventures using AI, connected devices and other emerg- ing technologies for healthcare initiatives. 5. Last October, Mayo Clinic and Google launched their first AI initiative focused on radiation therapy. The health system's radiation therapy experts are working with Google's experts on applying AI to medical imaging for patients with cancers in the head and neck area. n

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