Innovation Hub

The results are in: Brigham Innovation Hub’s Top 10 Healthcare Innovations for 2015

Angelica Recierdo — Wed, 18 Feb 2015 17:46:07 +0000

What are the most promising upcoming healthcare innovations that are likely to have the biggest impact on improving patient care in 2015?

The Brigham Innovation Hub team applied its collective clinical knowledge and innovation experience to develop a list of Top 10 Healthcare Innovations in 2015. The process began by gathering ideas from both clinical and industry perspectives with special note to current healthcare trends. A shortlist of 30 innovations was compiled and voted on by more than 450 of Brigham Innovation Hub’s subscribers, which consists of BWH clinicians in a variety of health fields and members of the healthcare innovation community . Engagement, reduced costs, and digital health were found to be the top issues for 2015.

Here are the selections for 2015:

1. Use of “Big Data” to reduce the costs for high-cost patients

Only 5% of patients account for a whopping half of U.S. healthcare expenditures. Using “big data” can create algorithms for identifying patients who would more likely be “high-cost,” i.e. patients with multiple co-morbidities. This information can then be applied to make actionable predictions to prevent re-admission of this patient cohort.

2. Financial incentivizing of healthy behavior by employers

Although half of all U.S. employers offer some kind of wellness program, it is not usually taken advantage of by employees. To lower their own costs, employers are now seeing that they have to be more active in helping their employees be healthier. Companies are spending more on healthcare than they did 5 years ago and that’s because a healthier workplace means increased productivity.

3. Innovations for managing outpatient behavioral health

Up to 30% of Americans have a mental health condition but less than a quarter of them seek help. Hospitals partnering with outpatient mental health agencies create a teamwork approach to patients in crisis. The link can seamlessly transition patients in and out of the appropriate facilities when an episode occurs. The use of telepsychiatry is also on the rise, providing counseling services to remote patients.

4. Better reimbursement for telemedicine leading to greater use of telehealth and digital health by clinicians in their daily practice

The expansion of telehealth services being covered by Medicare and the increase in coverage of patient distance is making telemedicine a more viable option for clinicians’ plans of care. The addition of imaging and monitoring offered in digital health services also adds value to these visits making them comparable to physical clinical encounters.

5. Healthcare delivery goes retail to increase patient engagement

Retail giants like Walmart and CVS want to get out of our medicine cabinets and into our lives. The call for providing deeper services to its customers comes from the belief that better health outcomes can be fostered in community settings like at your local pharmacy.

6. The use of “wearables” increasing in hospitals to detect continuous biomarkers

The use of wearables allows for inexpensive continuous physiological monitoring with little manual intervention. On busy inpatient units, sensors serve as the eyes and ears to alert clinicians of safety issues and sudden medical emergencies.

7. Increased prescription of health apps

Mobile apps connect care from home to hospital and allow patients to take more responsibility and interest in their own health. Apps that can reduce costs through remote consultation will be the most valuable for hospitals. Listen to BWH Chief Innovation Officer, David Bates and his thoughts on how health apps can improve care of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension.

8. Care delivery innovation for end-of-life care patients

The goal of end-of-life care is to reduce suffering and respect the wishes of the dying. These patients require more care coordination, continuity of care and timely care encounters. The use of telemedicine and digital health could enhance the care delivery of this sensitive patient population. Read more about Atul Gawande’s new book “Being Mortal” on the uneasy conversations clinicians have with their dying patients.

9. Increased use of 3-D printing

Brigham & Women’s Hospital is using 3-D printing to better map out the techniques of face transplantation pre-operatively and to follow the progress of patients post-operatively. This provides better visualization for surgeons and better satisfaction with appearances for patients.

10. Better care delivery and engagement for the large number of newly insured and millenials

The number of millennial (people born in the 80s and 90s) Americans now surpass the Baby Boomers. They are more culturally diverse than any other generation and more budget-conscious. They are also more difficult to engage with traditional marketing campaigns and will surpass their parents’ earnings by 2018. Health plans that can succeed at influencing this group will reap the benefits of retaining this demographic.

MedTech Boston: The Brigham Innovation Hub Sparks Clinical Creativity

Angelica Recierdo — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 15:54:50 +0000

The Brigham Innovation Hub was created for just this reason – to give BWH employees a way to take their most innovative thoughts from ideation to fruition. Acting as part incubator, part advisory board and part events office, the Brigham Innovation Hub was designed to connect smart clinicians like Abdulnour to business and engineering resources.

“We work at the early stage of clinician ideas,” Pothik Chatterjee, Manager of Innovation Strategy and Ventures for the Brigham Innovation Hub, says. “We assess the pain points, look at how they became inspired, then concretize those milestones to accelerate ideas into commercialization.”

Another success story from the Brigham Innovation Hub is Sophia Koo, a BWH infectious disease physician who wanted to develop a technology that could look at a patient’s breath and determine disease. Koo was able to acquire NIH funding to prove that a device like this could work. She collaborated with Draper Laboratory to develop a prototype of the breathalyzer, too, but then she came to the Brigham Innovation Hub’s director, Lesley Solomon, to ask for advice. What should she do next?

What followed is now a common occurrence at the Brigham Innovation Hub: Solomon advised Koo about business opportunities, direction and bringing her product to patients faster. Now Koo has her own company and she continues to work on the device (which she hopes can be used for 10 different infectious diseases with the burgeoning potential of identifying Pneumonia, too).

Read the full article here

BetaBoston: BWH Names New Chief Innovation Officer

Angelica Recierdo — Tue, 10 Feb 2015 15:43:25 +0000

Brigham and Women’s Hospital announced on Friday that David Bates, a long-time administrative and medical staffer at the medical center, will take on the role of chief innovation officer.
As in the past, he hopes to use the Hub to connect startups looking for clinical partners with medical professionals at the hospital.Among his new responsibilities, Bates will chair the Innovation Hub, the medical center’s sandbox where Brigham staffers can brainstorm with engineers and designers in the Greater Boston area. The Hub hosts an annual hackathon, and plays host to events like the Women’s Mental Health Codethon, a uniquely health-focused hack day held in partnership with the Clinton Foundation.

Read the full article here

BWH Clinical Research & News: Solutions Take Shape at Surgery Innovation Series

Angelica Recierdo — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 20:37:03 +0000

Armed with duct tape, pipe cleaners, aluminum foil, sponges and other supplies from Home Depot, teams of BWH clinicians, MIT engineers and others were ready to tackle some of the challenges that face surgeons in the operating room every day. As Daniel Salvati, administrative director for Research in the Department of Surgery watched, ideas flowed and prototypes began to take shape.

“There was so much energy in the room,” Salvati said of the Solution Build Session at the end of November. “There was a learning curve for some of the engineers, but they were quickly picking things up, and there was a lot of interaction at the tables.”

The evening’s activities were part of the Surgery Innovation Series – a group of events put together by the Brigham Innovation Hub (iHub). The innovation series is designed to promote a culture of problem-solving and entrepreneurship by bringing together BWHers and experts in fields outside of health care, including engineering and business. Ultimately, successful collaborations could lead to long-term partnerships and new products and services that may improve the delivery of care, reduce operational inefficiencies or improve health outcomes.

Read the full article here

WCVB: Google Glass keeping neonatal infants, parents connected at Brigham

Angelica Recierdo — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 17:12:26 +0000

Mothers of pre-term babies often have heightened anxiety about the welfare of their newborn, especially when the infant is isolated in a special unit with tubes and monitors attached. But now Google Glass technology is helping some of those parents during the difficult time.

The idea came from neonatal nurse Stephanie Shine. A veteran of the NICU, she is also a mom. Her second child required intensive care. They were separated for 18 hours and she thought there must be something technology can do.

“It’s something I wasn’t aware of (as a nurse) is that these moms are separated for an extended period of time and how hard that is to actually bond with your baby in that critical time after your baby is born. It can be many hours — when the staff takes the baby out of the room to be admitted to the NICU. I just can’t imagine how you feel,” Shine said.

Read the full article here

BWH Bulletin: BWHers Win NASA Innovation Award for Space Station Lighting

Pothik Chatterjee — Thu, 29 Jan 2015 15:57:36 +0000

It’s not every day that the reach of one’s research extends into space.

But the work of BWH’s Charles Czeisler, MD, PhD, Elizabeth Klerman, MD, PhD, and Steven Lockley, PhD, is doing just that and will be implemented aboard the International Space Station (ISS) later this year, improving astronauts’ ability to sleep soundly and stay alert.

Sleep is largely managed by the body’s circadian clock, which regulates our production of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin, and cortisol, a hormone that promotes wakefulness and is associated with stress. On Earth, people’s circadian clocks are reset each day by exposure to natural light. In space, however, different light cues disrupt astronauts’ circadian rhythms.

Read the full article here

Vote here for the Top 10 Healthcare Innovations for 2015!

Angelica Recierdo — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 22:00:41 +0000

Brigham Innovation Hub would like to know your opinion on the top 10 most promising healthcare innovations for 2015! Please select 10 out of the 30 we compiled or provide your own answer. Each choice is supplied with a link to give you background information on the innovation. Express your thoughts with us on the exciting developments happening in the healthcare innovation space!

Our first Idea Lab: Improving Patient Engagement

Angelica Recierdo — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 18:27:58 +0000

On Monday January 12, 2015, Brigham Innovation Hub premiered its first Idea Lab to the Brigham & Women’s Hospital community. An Idea Lab consists of 90 minutes of focused brainstorming to discuss problems and possible solutions facing BWH clinicians and scientists on a daily basis.

This first Idea Lab theme was Employee Patient Engagement, focusing on how BWH can better serve its employees in engaging in their personal health. We kicked off the session with a presentation by our Clinical Champion Dr. Erika Pabo, Assistant Medical Director of Primary Care. She introduced the importance of patient employee engagement, citing that engaged patients make “better” patients with less unmet health needs, who receive higher quality care, and require lower costs. Dr. Jason Block from the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare Institute presented the employee wellness study he implemented here at BWH. He found that there is a desire by employees for a visible wellness initiative at all times of day.

The 40 Idea Lab attendees came from an array of backgrounds including physicians and designers to tackle this issue with the lifestyle of the hospital employee in mind. Groups were divided into themes on Wellness such as diet and exercise, as well as on Primary Care such as access & scheduling, location, care outside the office and in between visits, and specialty care coordination between primary care and wellness. Lack of time was a common thread and the issue that hospital employees lack flexible schedules was at the root of most problems. Some creative ideas that sprouted from this evening include:

Featuring a “superfood” of the week in the cafeteria along with recipe cards for distribution
Having hospital leadership hold cooking demonstrations of their favorite dishes
15-minute exercise podcasts to listen to during breaks
Weekly pop-up clinics to test for biomarkers such as serum cholesterol levels or blood glucose.

The energy was palpable through the room and it was evident because ideas were spilling over past the 90 minutes. Promising ideas have the potential to be tapped further with lasting connections to be bridged with colleagues and experts across disciplines and with the guidance from the Innovation Hub. The Idea Lab series hopes to spread the “innovation bug” to the BWH community and foster a culture of innovation at large. For more information on upcoming Idea Labs click here.

Continuum Insights: Making Innovation Real at Brigham & Women’s Hospital

Pothik Chatterjee — Mon, 22 Dec 2014 17:41:11 +0000

We’ve known for a while that a major challenge in innovation isn’t idea generation, it’s what happens next. At Brigham and Women’s, a nationally renowned hospital in Boston that employs 15,000 people, turning exciting, productive, and impactful ideas into tangible ways to help patients is a similarly relevant challenge.

There’s no shortage of these ideas; 72% of clinicians at the Brigham think of initiatives to improve patient care that they would be interested in pursuing, but get stalled there. They don’t know what the next step is, and finding time and securing funding to build a software solution, medical device, or new patient service may also provide challenges.

Enter the Brigham Innovation Hub, a resource center launched in 2013 with the mission of turning concepts, innovations, and research from the hospital’s clinicians into products and services that affect healthcare outcomes and improve patient experiences.

Executive Director Lesley Solomon visited Continuum’s Boston studio to share a bit of background on the ways the iHub is connecting ideas to outcomes and building relationships in the broader community to encourage innovation. Lesley’s talk addressed the central question: how does an organization move ideas forward and provide those much-needed next steps?

Read the full article by Allison Ryder here

BWH Recognized as Champion of Medical Innovation

Amanda — Wed, 03 Dec 2014 16:35:45 +0000

Awards & Honors – Nov 20, 2014
BWH Recognized as Champion of Medical Innovation

Brigham and Women’s Hospital has been recognized as a Champion of Medical Innovation by Babson College at the inaugural Celebrating Entrepreneurship of All Kinds Boston event. BWH was acknowledged for successful innovations, including the completion of the nation’s first face transplant in 2011 and the launch of the Brigham Innovation Hub, which aims to enhance a culture of creativity by encouraging innovators and propelling ideas forward to bring clinical innovations to life.

Read the full article

Innovation Hub

The results are in: Brigham Innovation Hub’s Top 10 Healthcare Innovations for 2015

What are the most promising upcoming healthcare innovations that are likely to have the biggest impact on improving patient care in 2015?

Here are the selections for 2015:

1. Use of “Big Data” to reduce the costs for high-cost patients

2. Financial incentivizing of healthy behavior by employers

3. Innovations for managing outpatient behavioral health

4. Better reimbursement for telemedicine leading to greater use of telehealth and digital health by clinicians in their daily practice

5. Healthcare delivery goes retail to increase patient engagement

Retail giants like Walmart and CVS want to get out of our medicine cabinets and into our lives. The call for providing deeper services to its customers comes from the belief that better health outcomes can be fostered in community settings like at your local pharmacy.

6. The use of “wearables” increasing in hospitals to detect continuous biomarkers

The use of wearables allows for inexpensive continuous physiological monitoring with little manual intervention. On busy inpatient units, sensors serve as the eyes and ears to alert clinicians of safety issues and sudden medical emergencies.

7. Increased prescription of health apps

8. Care delivery innovation for end-of-life care patients

9. Increased use of 3-D printing

Brigham & Women’s Hospital is using 3-D printing to better map out the techniques of face transplantation pre-operatively and to follow the progress of patients post-operatively. This provides better visualization for surgeons and better satisfaction with appearances for patients.

10. Better care delivery and engagement for the large number of newly insured and millenials

MedTech Boston: The Brigham Innovation Hub Sparks Clinical Creativity

BetaBoston: BWH Names New Chief Innovation Officer

BWH Clinical Research & News: Solutions Take Shape at Surgery Innovation Series

WCVB: Google Glass keeping neonatal infants, parents connected at Brigham

BWH Bulletin: BWHers Win NASA Innovation Award for Space Station Lighting

Vote here for the Top 10 Healthcare Innovations for 2015!

Our first Idea Lab: Improving Patient Engagement

Continuum Insights: Making Innovation Real at Brigham & Women’s Hospital

BWH Recognized as Champion of Medical Innovation

Awards & Honors – Nov 20, 2014 BWH Recognized as Champion of Medical Innovation

Awards & Honors – Nov 20, 2014
BWH Recognized as Champion of Medical Innovation