Becker's Hospital Review

54 INNOVATION 6 big ideas in healthcare innovation By Katie Adams F rom their thoughts on how to choose which digital health startups to invest in to how healthcare innovation has been crucial to fighting the pandemic, here are six quotes about the role of innovation in health- care that hospital executives shared with Becker's Hospital Review in August: Maneesh Goyal. COO at the Mayo Clinic Platform (Rochester, Minn.). We invest in partners that are bold and can help us trans- form healthcare together by producing ideas and capabilities that not only lead the market, but oentimes create it ... In my 20 years' ex- perience in investing, I observed that winners tend to have two things in common: keen un- derstanding of market timing and patience. Aaron Martin. Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Providence (Renton, Wash.) and Managing General Partner of Providence Ventures. Our inno- vation model is to first try to find digital op- portunities where we think digital has a sig- nificant strategic value to a problem that we're trying to solve or an opportunity we're trying to go aer as a health system. If we find those opportunities, we are almost certain that they are available at other systems. So we know it's probably a big total addressable market, and a good market opportunity. at is a good problem or opportunity to go aer. John Brownstein, PhD. Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children's Hospital. As an innovation group, you can get very distracted by a lot of shiny objects and innovations that may not be the most valuable for patients and providers. We have a really strong sourcing strategy that starts with real enterprise-level goals where we're trying to understand areas that might be impactful, like primary care be- havioral health. We also do a deep dive from the bottom up. We're trying to learn from the staff, whether it's on the clinical side or ad- ministrative side, where the major issues are. As opposed to getting wrapped up in whatev- er buzzword of the day, we want to point our team toward where we're going to be highly evidence-based in terms of selective [projects]. omas Graham, MD. Chief Innovation and Transformation Officer at Kettering (Ohio) Health. Innovation remains the mechanism to improve and extend human life, while creating economic opportunities for the communities we serve. Innovation will always happen best — and fastest — at the intersection of knowledge domains where ideas come together and get fertilized. Tony Ambrozie. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at Baptist Health South Florida (Miami). Digital transforma- tion is really about business transformation, whether in healthcare or anywhere else, as business transformation is driven by technol- ogies, but not solely about technology. In that context, I think the logical role transition for leaders and their teams is from pure technol- ogist roles to what I would say are business leaders deeply anchored in technologies. Jason Joseph. Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Information Officer at Spectrum Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.). As we innovate, we are forcing hidden barriers into the light via experimentation. We saw so many of these bar- riers uncovered within health care, such as lack of connectivity, digital competency, and the need for comprehensive managed workflow. We have shined a spotlight on how much of healthcare re- lies on people and inconsistent manual processes to get through the system. at needs to change, and that also requires changing a leader's tradi- tional mindset. n Mount Sinai genomics spinoff taps former IBM exec as chief scientific officer By Jackie Drees S tamford, Conn.-based Sema4, a genomics company spun out of Mount Sinai Health System, named former IBM leader Gustavo Stolovitzky, PhD, as its new chief scientific officer, the company said Sept. 13. Dr. Stolovitzky brings more than 25 years of data analysis and bio- technology experience to his new position. Before joining Sema4, Dr. Stolovitzky spent 23 years at IBM Research, most recently serving as the founding chair of the exploratory life sciences program. Pre- viously, he was director of IBM's translational systems biology and nanobiotechnology program. In the new role of chief scientific officer, Dr. Stolovitzky will lead Se- ma4's research strategy and grow the company's partnerships with health systems and the biopharmaceutical industry. New York City-based Mount Sinai spun its Genetic Testing Laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai into Sema4 in June 2017. Earlier this year, the company completed its $500 million merg- er with special purpose acquisition company CM Life Sciences.n Elon Musk pledges $50M to St. Jude space flight fundraiser By Alia Paavola T esla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk pledged $50 million toward Inspira- tion4's $200 million dollar fundraiser to Memphis, Tenn.-based St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The goal of the first all-civilian space mission, Inspiration4, was to raise $200 million for St. Jude. Before Mr. Musk's pledge, the mission had raised $160.2 million, according to CNBC. Jared Isaacman, a billionaire entrepreneur who purchased the flight from SpaceX, donated $100 million to St. Jude. Inspiration4 said the donations will be used to support "finding cures for kids with cancer and other life-threatening diseases, regardless of their race, ethnicity, beliefs or a family's ability to pay."n

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