Becker's Hospital Review

64 INNOVATION No. 1 thing to seek in an innovation investment? Mayo Clinic, Northwell & 4 other systems answer By Katie Adams A s more health systems make investments in digital health startups to help address unmet needs in the healthcare in- dustry, it is imperative that their selection process have a clear strategy. Below, executives from five health systems explain what they look for in an innovation investment. Maneesh Goyal. Chief Operating Officer at the Mayo Clinic Plat- form (Rochester, Minn.): We focus on strategic investment oppor- tunities from all angles that can help address the unmet needs of the patients. is is our primary guiding principle. In addition, when looking at an investment in a new technology or company, we want to be sure that they are solving a problem that needs a solution as opposed to a solution in search of a problem. We then apply other criteria, such as their product management expertise, competitive landscape, market size, etc. We invest in partners that are bold and can help us transform health- care together by producing ideas and capabilities that not only lead the market, but oentimes create it. is is why we invested in Med- ically Home to implement and scale the "hospital-at-home" model and Nference to help us discover new cures through data federation and de-identification at scale. But in my 20 years' experience in investing, I observed that winners tend to have two things in common: keen understanding of market timing and patience. Chris Coburn. Chief Innovation Officer at Mass General Brigham (Boston): e investment candidate has a viable commercial model and demonstrably solves a problem or creates an opportunity in a way that providers will readily adopt the technology and thereby enable the company to increase its value. Chris Stenzel. Vice President of Business Development and Inno- vation at Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.): When evaluating innovation investments, Kaiser Permanente looks for tools that will drive and enable us to deliver care that is safe and effective, timely and efficient, person-centered, equitable, and affordable. Kaiser Permanente's telehealth offerings, for example, are an inno- vation that we continue to invest in. Already a leader in offering a variety of telehealth capabilities for our members and patients, we expanded our virtual capacity at the beginning of the pandemic so that our highly trained clinical teams could continue to safely deliver care. Kaiser Permanente provided approximately 31 million sched- uled phone and video visits in 2020 — nearly half (48 percent) of the total ambulatory care visits provided — and saw a 28-fold increase in video visits over 2019, as members embraced telehealth options for safety, quality and convenience. Kaiser Permanente continues to seek out innovations that will ben- efit our members and the communities we serve, and provide addi- tional ways for them to receive the right care, at the right time, in the right setting. Dennis Durbin, MD. Chief Scientific Officer at Nationwide Chil- dren's Hospital (Columbus, Ohio): A hospital environment is a fertile ecosystem for new ideas. Innovators from every corner of the organization have a unique perspective on what can help a patient or a fellow clinician or scientist. Quite oen their foresight is fo- cused on a newly identified market need. As a destination hospital that cares for children every day with diseases for which we don't have effective treatments, we have a responsibility to support the discovery and translation of novel, life-changing therapies for these patients, so innovation investments must rise to meet that respon- sibility and mission. e pediatric landscape in the biotechnology arena is rapidly chang- ing, from manufacturing methods to federal regulations. We must continue to adapt, and investment in developing treatments — such as gene therapies, for example — helps to ensure that there is a steady stream of novel therapies coming into the commercial mar- ket over the next decade, translating discoveries from our labs to patients' bedsides. Nickolas Mark. Managing Director and Partner at Intermoun- tain Ventures (Salt Lake City): Simply put, we look for low-end disruption paired with strong business fundamentals. It is a privi- lege to partner with early pioneers, creative entrepreneurs and mis- sion-driven organizations focused on new approaches in realizing meaningful, measurable and positive change across the healthcare landscape for those in our communities that need it most. John Bosco. Senior Vice President and CIO of Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.): Innovation and digital health are at the forefront of Northwell's strategy and culture. We look for invest- ments in technology that strengthen relationships between our clinicians and patients and foster richer, data-driven connections between them. Investments in consumer technologies help to engage patients with- in their everyday lives and provide us with rich clinical data to en- sure we meet all of our patients' needs, whether during a visit to our healthcare facilities or to help them self-manage their health and wellness at home. Northwell Health also partners with organizations to cultivate in- novative advancements in digital health. Rather than remaining as standalone solutions, these developments must work within the larg- er health IT ecosystem and focus on building better, integrated tools for our clinicians to function more efficiently and effectively. While we also look for investments that can generate a financial re- turn, our primary goal is to promote wellness, give patients and clini- cians access to the information they need, and provide the best possi- ble care when required. n

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