Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1393415
60 INNOVATION 5 big ideas in healthcare innovation By Katie Adams F rom their thoughts on how to improve contactless technology to retail giants' healthcare consumerism efforts to how to better engage patients, here are five quotes about the role of innovation in healthcare that hospital and health system executives shared with Becker's Hospital Review in May: Donnie Parish. CIO at Cherokee Nation Health Services (Tahlequah, Okla.). [Dig- ital patient engagement and remote patient monitoring] allow patients to become more engaged in their own healthcare and will create a better health and wellness culture. Providing open communication through text, email, chatbots, digital forms and other digital engagement for all areas of both clini- cal and non-clinical healthcare functions not only creates that 'digital front door,' but also allows both the patient and care providers the ability to proactively engage in care. Daniel Durand, MD. Chief Innovation Officer at LifeBridge Health (Baltimore). If I had to pick a large company most likely to "tough it out" and continue to invest and refine its thesis until it has a true impact in healthcare delivery, then I would probably pick Amazon. It understands the modern consumer as well as anyone and it seems to be refining its thesis, learning, and making investments that look progressively more sophisticated from the standpoint of experi- enced healthcare operators. Plus, its free cash flow is something like 100 times that of the average health system, so it has a lot of room for error. Zafar Chaudry, MD. Senior Vice President and CIO at Seattle Children's. Contactless technologies have proven themselves in healthcare, such as Internet of ings-based systems, patient check-ins, payments or data collection processes. ese technologies will remain as part of the new normal of hybrid healthcare services post-pandemic. However, there still needs to be more work undertak- en on resolving issues such as security, the need for liability regulations for contactless services, international standardization of contactless healthcare services and how we address equity issues for those patients who do not have smartphone devices, access to high-speed internet or mobile data services. Kolaleh Eskandanian, PhD. Chief Innova- tion Officer at Children's National Hospital (Washington, D.C.). While I appreciate the creativity of some tech and retail giants in introducing certain care solutions, these ser- vices are provided in a very "retail-minded" fashion — the only way these giants under- stand consumers. As such, this consumerism approach has been in the context of sick care, not healthcare. It may address access and per- haps affordability, but health consumers also demand reliability and continuity of care and coordination, which could be achieved by linking these "retail-minded" services with health systems. Only then, we can ensure a total high-value patient experience. Roberta Schwartz, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer at Houston Methodist Hospital. Our priority has been to disrupt every area of our organization, and change the way we work into more of a digital technology way of working. So what we like is the fact that we've gone live with a new system in our human re- sources department that makes it much easi- er to identify and bring applicants into the or- ganization. We went live with a revenue cycle product that is light years ahead of where we were, and digitizes much of our revenue cycle interfaces for our customers and the way that we've worked. I'm very proud of the fact that for us, it's not just about patient-facing tech- nologies, which are incredibly important, but also recognizing that we are trying to disrupt our business in every aspect. So I feel every aspect of our organization was touched a lit- tle bit by the innovation team. n Cleveland Clinic, IBM, Aetna, Anthem team up to launch blockchain health company By Hannah Mitchell S everal healthcare companies, inlcuding Cleveland Clinic, IBM, Aetna and Anthem, have partnered to form a blockchain health firm called Avaneer Health. The Chicago-based healthcare company will aim to use blockchain capabilities to make healthcare more efficient and reduce administrative costs, according to a June 9 news release. Five things to know: 1. Avaneer Health will be formed as a standalone busi- ness with significant investments from its founders: Aetna, Anthem, Cleveland Clinic, Health Care Service Corpo- ration, IBM, The PNC Financial Services and Norfolk, Va.- based Sentara Healthcare. 2. Avaneer Health is a member-based open network sup- porting utilities developed for the healthcare industry. It is expected to improve healthcare by removing adminis- trative barriers and alleviate inefficiencies in cross-party transactions that slow down care delivery. 3. The CEO will be Stuart Hanson, former managing director and senior healthcare industry executive at JPMorgan Chase. 4. The company will be built on blockchain technology to ensure privacy and reduce costs of data exchange. 5. Avaneer Health plans to reveal its full vision at the HIMSS healthcare conference in August. n