From Innovation Learning Network Insights - Volume 8 - 2014 - access the entire issue at http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=6689ffe54f3b0db09c939cb66&id=17c22e4be1

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2. HEALTH CARE
LEADERS THINK BIG
ON A SMALL BUDGET
innovative ideas pitched at BU-Hosted event
WRITTEN by LESLIE FRIDAY
PHOTOS by CYDNEY SCOTT
REPRINTED FROM BU TODAY — SEPT. 9, 2013
W
ith debate over the debt ceiling and how
to implement (or rescind) the Affordable Care Act expected to consume much of
Congress’ attention in the coming months,
Washington pols would be wise to follow the
work of the Innovation Learning Network
(ILN).
Founded by Kaiser Permanente and the
Center for Integration of Medicine and
Innovative Technology (CIMIT), the ILN
is a membership organization of 35 hospital
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systems from the United States and the United
Kingdom whose mission is to improve the
delivery of health care while reducing cost and
improving patient safety. Members typically
meet every six months for workshops on health
care design and innovation, but a highlight for
the organization is its biennial “open space”
event. This three-day “un-conference” has no
agenda other than bringing together bright
minds to tackle some of the world’s most pressing health care problems on a tight budget.
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3. Healthcare Leaders think Big on a small Budget
Boston University hosted the
most recent ILN InPerson Biennial
Open Space under the guidance of
Beverly Brown, development director
of the Center for Global Health and
Development and wife of University
President Robert A. Brown. About
80 attendees divided into groups
according to their personal interests.
They spent the first two days taking
“safaris” around Boston University,
meeting with people like Catherine
Klapperich, a College of Engineering associate professor of biomedical
engineering and of mechanical engineering, who designs medical devices
that can withstand primitive conditions in third-world countries; Brian
Jack, a School of Medicine professor
and chair of family medicine, who
leads Project RED, an innovative
and nationally recognized hospital
discharge procedure; and Deborah
Frank, a MED professor of pediatrics
and director of the Grow Clinic for
Children, who gave a demonstration
at Boston Medical Center’s Preventive Food Pantry on how to prepare
food for people living with diabetes.
Chris McCarthy, director of ILN
at Kaiser Permanente, described
Open Space as “lots of water cooler conversations” among leading
health care professionals. The goal
is “to create new friendships and
strengthen ones that exist,” he said.
“The deeper these friendships are,
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Chris McCarthy, director of the Innovation Learning Network, instructs
Open Space attendees how to vote for innovative projects.
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4. Healthcare Leaders think Big on a small Budget
the easier for innovation to happen.”
On the third and final day of the un-conference, teams gathered in the Trustees Ballroom
at One Silber Way to pitch innovative ideas.
Attendees texted their votes of support, “just
like American Idol,” said McCarthy.
Over a lunch of salmon, toast, and asparagus, eight groups had two minutes apiece
to describe their projects and why they were
important. They also had to estimate the cost
of funding the project. Teams selected one of
three funding categories: $12,500, $7,500, and
$2,500. Those who went over their presentation time were ushered offstage by Kaiser
Permanente’s Ted Eytan, who approached the
podium and hugged them into compliance. The
teams were allowed 90 seconds to answer questions before the final boot. Audience members
scored each group, marking one number for
the general worth of the idea and another for
how solid it was as an ILN project. The total
helped determine the leaders in each funding
category.
Formulating pitches is hardly foreign in this
BU hosted the Open Space event, guided by Beverly
Brown, development director of the Center for
Global Health and Development.
The goal is to create new friendships
and strengthen ones that exist. The
deeper these friendships are, the
easier for innovation to happen.
- CHRIS MCCARTHY
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5. Healthcare Leaders think Big on a small Budget
Ted Eytan (left), of Kaiser Permanente and Paul Tarini
(right), of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pitch
their group’s idea for an ILN Carbon War Room.
What is Open Space?
Open Space or “Unconference” as it’s commonly referred to is a way to fill a room and
a conference agenda with passionate people and ideas. This meeting format allows for
both small and large diverse groups of people to explore a topic from a multitude of
perspectives and expertise in a safe, productive, and empowering format. The beauty of
Open Space is its simplicity, while the magic is in its chaos. To learn more, click here or
scan the QR code to the right.
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6. Healthcare Leaders think Big on a small Budget
crowd, Brown explained: “These people have
to do it in their day jobs.”
“Does anyone in this room not have access
to a cell phone?” asked event MC McCarthy.
He gave a wry smile as no hands were raised.
“That’s really good.” Judging by technical difficulties later, he should have asked if everyone
knew how to use said cell phone.
Pitches varied greatly. Some groups wanted
to duplicate existing programs they’d visited, like Health Leads, a program begun at
Boston Medical Center in 1996 that seeks to
address all patients’ basic resource needs as
a standard part of quality care, or the clinics
at the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless
Program (BHCHP). Others proposed weaning
BHCHP’s homeless population from tobacco
through the introduction of e-cigarettes, and
still others hoped to launch an ILN Carbon
War Room—basically a way to measure the
organization’s carbon footprint. (One observer
asked, “Can you not call it the war room?”
Hugger-turned-presenter Eytan replied, “If
you give us a couple of points, we’ll change it.”)
All pitches complete, McCarthy explained
how to text in votes. “The system will know if
you try to do more than two,” he warned. On a
projector screen at the front of the room, bars
on a graph displaying the vote count began to
shrink and expand wildly. “Everybody stop,” he
said. “I see you, stop voting!” After rebooting
the program and guiding the less tech-savvy
through the process, he asked everyone to vote
again. Whispered consultations buzzed around
the room while pinging sounds announced
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7. Healthcare Leaders think Big on a small Budget
the arrival of votes. Everyone stared
intently ahead to learn the fate of their
pitch.
“How do we know if our vote got
up there and we didn’t mess up?” asked
Yasmin Staton, a senior communications consultant for Kaiser Permanente.
“Magic,” McCarthy said with a
shrug.
With all votes in, McCarthy
announced the winners. The group that
pitched the Global Lab for Innovation
in Health earned the $12,500 prize, which members said
they will use to build an online network for health care
professionals to exchange information about innovative
and sustainable solutions to complex medical problems.
The group suggesting e-cigarettes for the homeless took
home $7,500. And the group pitching Community Care
Connect, which will mimic the Health Leads model in
another part of the country, earned $2,500.
Attendees seemed pleased with the results of their
American Idol–like exercise. Instead of rushing off to the
airport or back to their offices, they stuck around for more
water cooler conversations.
Leslie Friday
Staff Writer for BU Today / Drop her a line at lfriday@bu.edu or follower her on Twitter @lesliefriday
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A facility for homeless adults — a place
to go when you aren’t sick enough for the hospital, but too sick for a shelter or the street.
Bring back the clinical shadowing experience at all
levels for professional development and the democratization of innovation.
Innovation Learning Network.
Increase awareness of benefits of environmental stewardship in the
needs to be solved together vs. being driven by vendors.
Using the ILN community to define
Brings together health systems from around the world to scan for
high-value innovations that radically reduce cost and improve access to care. Learn more about the
winning “Innovation Fuel” award winner, Global Lab for Innovation on pg. 80.
Pilot and evaluate the use of e-cigarettes as a new technology to help
the underserved/homeless, quit smoking.
An electronic resource that is accessible via the EMR allows
clinicians to click on, and out pops relevant community resources for patients to connect with.
A study (and future EHR integration) of chronically ill patients’ data (FitBit, devices, Facebook, etc) to find relevance in managing their diseases.
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