Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1383677
62 INNOVATION 4 healthcare CIOs top Forbes' most innovative list By Hannah Mitchell W hen COVID-19 began to quickly spread, these CIOs helped keep their business afloat by rapid- ly enabling new technological capabilities. ey launched telehealth services, utilized tech to cut costs and used drones to deliver urgent medical supplies. ese are the top four innovation chiefs in healthcare, according to an April 29 Forbes report. Forbes ranked the top 50 CIOs — and those with equivalent titles — who highlighted how the role is evolving and whose quick innovation saved North American businesses aer the onset of the pandemic. e following four healthcare executives are listed in alpha- betical order: 1. Paola Arbour. CIO of Tenet Healthcare. e Dal- las-based health system operates 65 hospitals and hundreds of other healthcare facilities. It has built up a complex tech- nology footprint with more than 700 suppliers. Ms. Arbour launched a multiyear project to clarify what benefits the health system is getting in technology and what areas can be trimmed, saving it millions of dollars each year. 2. Suja Chandrasekaran. Chief Digital and Information Officer of CommonSpirit Health. e Chicago-based health system, a nonprofit whose revenue was nearly $30 bil- lion in its fiscal year ended June 2020, supported more than 1.5 million telehealth visits during the pandemic. It uses ma- chine learning to provide data-driven insight to medical staff at locations in 21 states. Ms. Chandrasekaran is a member of T200, a group of women in tech who help other women advance into tech leadership roles. 3. Justin Mennen. CIO of Rite Aid. Mr. Mennen is a driv- er behind reimagining the store layout and launching tele- health services. e Camp Hill, Pa.-based pharmacy and retail chain had already been building its technology to transform its stores before the pandemic struck. e compa- ny generated $24 billion in its fiscal year to Feb. 27 between its 2,400 stores. 4. Angela Yochem. Chief Transformation and Digital Officer of Novant Health. Ms. Yochem started at the Win- ston-Salem, N.C.-based health system in 2018 with a vision for bringing patients and caregivers into a digitally enabled community. She launched artificial intelligence-based im- age analysis and remote consultations with neurosurgeons, which have cut the average time to get treatment for strokes by a third of the national average. During the pandemic, Ms. Yochem partnered with a drone company to use drones to deliver urgent supplies to medical campuses in North Caro- lina. Her vision of tech-integrated health helped the system generate $5.7 billion in revenue last year. n CVS Health launches $100M digital innovation fund By Jackie Drees C VS Health on April 29 unveiled its $100 million venture fund, which will fund projects and innovations from digital healthcare and tech companies. CVS Health Ventures will focus on building collaborations with early-stage companies breaking into digital healthcare and looking to make services more accessible and affordable. CVS has already made more than 20 direct investments through the CVS Aetna businesses, which include Unite Us, a tech plat- form that connects healthcare and social services point-of-care diagnostic platform LumiraDx. "We have deep experience investing in innovative compa- nies," Josh Flum, executive vice president of enterprise strat- egy and business development at CVS Health, said in the news release. "We will build on this experience by providing capital to our startup and venture partners and helping them scale more rapidly through commercial relationships with our business units." n Penn State builds wearable antenna to transmit health monitoring data By Jackie Drees R esearchers at University Park, Pa.-based Penn State cre- ated a prototype of a wireless, wearable transmitter that could be used for both health monitoring and clinical treatments, according to an April 14 news release. The transmitter, which can send wireless data at a range of al- most 300 feet, can be easily integrated with numerous computer chips or sensors. The device has the potential to be applied in remote patient monitoring and healthcare treatment use cases. "We are really excited that this research could one day lead to networks of sensors and transmitters worn on the body, all com- municating with each other and external devices," said Huanyu Cheng, PhD, assistant engineering science and mechanics pro- fessor at Penn State, according to the news release. "What we're imagining is science fiction at the moment, but we are working to make it happen." The researchers built the device in layers, with the bottom lay- er consisting of a copper mesh with a pattern of overlapping, wavy lines. The bottom layer touches the skin, while the top layer serves as the radiating element in the antenna and creates the structured process through which the antenna mesh stretches and flattens to be flexible on the skin. n