We had 3 excellent guests join for our most recent Healthcare Entrepreneur Meetup: Will ElLaissi, Director of Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub; Dr. Jayne Morgan, Director of Innovation and Research Development at Piedmont Healthcare; and Ben McKeeby, SVP & CIO of Grady Health System.
They joined A.T. Gimbel for a powerhouse panel Q&A. We discussed current areas that health system leaders recognize are ripe for innovation, operational issues in the past that have hindered technology innovation, what the three major Atlanta Healthcare players are doing to foster innovation in the ecosystem, and more!
Current Areas That Are Ready for Innovation
We kicked off the Meetup with this topic: What are the current areas that health system leaders recognize are ripe for innovation? Specifically, how do you figure out the biggest pain points and opportunities to innovate around in the healthcare world?
Dr. Morgan shared that the healthcare system is a very interesting and very different animal. For Piedmont, there is always a focus on how to continually improve safety. Another topic of interest was around how to gather better feedback. Right now it starts at the innovation centers, then they go out and try to talk to and meet with as many doctors and staff and ask, "What on a daily basis is more and more annoying to you? What are the exact problems you are facing." It's about creating processes that will make them more successful.
The panel shared thoughts around how each of them dive into something from the thematic scene. McKeeby stated that it's not always clear from the beginning.
How Do You Bring Teams Together to Tackle Your Problems?
Dr. Morgan explained how they have internal and external systems. They have great clinical expertise and will build out teams based on their strengths. They currently have 3 projects in their incubator and are looking for more within Piedmont and the city of Atlanta. Regarding the incubator, people get to come with their free ideas. They can bring whatever solutions they want, it just has to positively impact patients.
These are people's original ideas and Piedmont helps to foster and develop.— Dr. Jayne Morgan
McKeeby shared how he and his team gather the ideas first, then go to the market to develop. They often won't know the solutions, but they start internally and then look externally to find them.
ElLaissi discussed the difficulties of bringing the business side and clinical side together: "If the business side is putting a hard stop on something it's really tough." In the Innovation Hub at Emory, he wants to focus on pilots and really test things, and results should answer the question, "Can you afford not to continue doing this?"
Q: What makes a successful pilot?
Put in the work in the beginning. Nail out all the details. Make sure you know who's going to be doing this and not bypassing them—get buy-in.— Will ElLaissi
The most successful are those to align with the brand of that Healthcare system. If you can align with the goals and trajectory of the system you can get their buy-in. If you can tap into the specific facility and system, you have much more rapid adoption.— Dr. Jayne Morgan
How Can Entrepreneurs Improve?
ElLaissi says it's important to have a very compelling story. Some people are solving problems, but they are on the fringe. "Tell the healthcare system WHY they need to care about this problem and why your solution is the right solution and why they need to be doing it TODAY."
McKeeby said sometimes being removed helps entrepreneurs with creative problem solving, but it's very helpful to get a mentor or partner within the system to convey its true goals and initiatives. He shared that healthcare systems...
...can also do a better job about releasing a problem.— Ben McKeeby
Dr. Morgan believes entrepreneurs can improve by focusing on good old fashioned customer discovery. It's important to understand their priority. There's only finite funding allowed, so entrepreneurs need to be strategic.
We really enjoy hosting these Healthcare Entrepreneurship Meetups and would love your feedback. Thank you to all our guests and to the team who helped make this Meetup happen!
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