Becker’s is excited to honor 34 hospitals and health systems with innovation programs.
Through forward-thinking innovation programs, these hospitals and health systems are able to remain on the leading-edge of the changing healthcare landscape. The following organizations have created programs, institutions and initiatives solely dedicated to furthering research, discovery and innovation.
Adventist Health (Roseville, Calif.). Adventist Health serves as a beacon for healthcare innovation in the community across its 28 hospital sites, 90 rural clinics and 140 other locations. The system serves over 2 million patients every year, with one in three earning less than $25,000 every year. Adventist Health has taken steps to foster a culture of innovation and infrastructure, promoting a progressive mindset and creating an environment of trust that encourages constant learning, assessing and improving. The system also actively partners with community leaders to fill gaps in the community. It heavily invests in patient safety and nursing staff development, support and career advancement opportunities. For instance, Adventist Health White Memorial in Los Angeles uses artificial intelligence to improve patient safety and care in real time, using AI to support clinical decision making, improve outcomes and improve sepsis compliance. Similarly, Adventist Health Glendale has incorporated KATE AI software into the nursing triage EHR to assist in identifying early sepsis symptoms. Adventist Health also supports its nursing department using real-time AI to assess patients based on vital signs, medical history and other relevant data.
Banner Health (Phoenix). Innovation initiatives at Banner Health primarily focus on making healthcare easier so life can be better for those it serves. The Banner Innovation Group was formed in 2019. Their approach involves testing new tools first on a small scale to gauge their potential value to the organization and their potential to scale more broadly. Banner’s long-term strategy involves improving customer experience via the “digital front door” to provide a modern, seamless experience across customers’ web, smartphone, telephone and in-person interactions with the system. One instance of this is a Smart Waitlist, which offers earlier imaging appointment times via text, based on patient acuity – a program which has helped to reduce no-shows, grow referral-to-appointment conversion and improve cancellation backfilling. Banner now plans to scale this model to other facilities. Other initiatives include an emergency department discharge bot, an AI-based symptom checker, a suite of digital therapeutics, a text-the-CEO program, and more. To continue identifying new technology tools to test, Banner has established multi-year partnerships with promising technology companies that align with its overall strategic direction.
Baptist Health South Florida (Coral Gables). Since its founding in 2019, Baptist Health Innovations has strategically molded itself into a high-throughput, high-impact business unit by fostering a culture of pervasive innovation throughout Baptist Health’s 27,000 employees. The Innovations unit has taken on hundreds of projects, including forging a master IP policy, working on 203 inventions, executing 669 transactions, creating a robust licensing revenue stream, forming a fellowship for innovation to train diverse professionals to commercialize healthcare innovations, and entering an affiliation agreement with Florida International University. In addition, they have entered codevelopment collaboration with new companies, created a $30 million innovation fund, led a successful startup healthtech idea competition, and much more. In 2023, Baptist Health was named one of the top 300 most innovative countries in the nation by Fortune and Statista.
Boston Medical Center Health System. Focused on health equity, Boston Medical Center Health System’s transformative programs are reimagining the patient experience. It is advancing cancer care and expanding access to gene therapies through CAR T-cell therapy that utilizes genetically re-engineered T-cell treatments to target and eliminate cancer cells in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Beyond traditional healthcare, its first-in-the-nation Clean Power Prescription pilot program allows providers to prescribe a reduced utility bill by leveraging renewable energy generated by BMCHS solar panels, which supports 80 patient households and lowers utility bills by $50 each month for a year. The StreetCred initiative provides comprehensive free tax prep services offered during pediatric wellness appointments to increase economic mobility for families with infants below the federal poverty level while concurrently supporting health equity. Additionally, it turned a rooftop into a thriving farm yielding tens of thousands of pounds of crops annually, which nourishes the patient population and contributes to urban green space and broader energy reduction efforts. The health system is steadfast on eliminating disparities and creating pathways for holistic treatment of each patient.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. With a long history of innovation that dates back to its founding as the nation’s first children’s hospital in 1855, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has been the birthplace for countless breakthroughs and dramatic firsts in pediatric medicine, including the first vaccines for mumps, whooping cough, influenza and rotavirus, as well as the first FDA-approved gene and cell therapies for children. Today, CHOP is home to one of the largest pediatric biobanks in the world and is continuing to develop new cell and gene therapies and finding ways to get them to patients more quickly. CHOP researchers are also using “big data” to accelerate the speed of research and the development of cures and personalized therapies, with the goal of delivering solutions that will advance children’s health around the world.
Children’s Nebraska (Omaha). Children’s Nebraska is currently on the forefront of technology with robotics and surgery, having implemented the wayfinding app, Children’s GO, as well as digital health initiatives and processes that make children’s care more convenient. They also have one of the most mature pediatric 3D imaging and printing programs in the country and were the first and only pediatric hospital in the Metaverse. Children’s has launched Bright Foundry, LLC, which is a healthcare business incubator designed to support innovation by funding winners of innovation competitions. Another recent accomplishment is the mobile application AdaptCare, which bridges the knowledge and training gap between the hospital and first responders by providing personalized care plans – an app that has delivered a 27% reduction in hospital admissions, a 50% decrease in overall hospital length of stay and a 55% financial cost reduction across organization services. Children’s Nebraska’s upcoming expansion, The Mammel Innovation Center, will be a centralized innovation hub focused on digital health, telemedicine, 3D printing and visualization, virtual reality, AI and medical devices.
Cleveland Clinic. Cleveland Clinic comprises over 72,000 researchers, scientists, clinicians and caregivers, each of whom contributes the system’s culture of innovation. With this focus on creative solutions, Cleveland Clinic Innovations was created in 2000 and has been driving invention and commercialization ever since. The program has resulted in over 2,4000 patents, more than 800 licenses and over 100 startups. The team has cultivated experience in medical devices, pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and digital health, allowing leaders to have a hand in the development and optimization in the solutions that go to market. Recent life-changing innovations from Cleveland Clinic include the High-Line system for safer IV lines, a precise endovascular navigation technology for safer procedures, and a vaccine for triple-negative breast cancer that is currently in trial.
CommonSpirit Health (Chicago). CommonSpirit Health’s open innovation philosophy encourages the combination of externally developed resources with internal competencies to deliver meaningful patient care improvements. The system addresses community needs through the Connected Community Network, which connects multiple stakeholders to meet the needs of patients. To date, the program has provided over 22,000 people with housing, food, transportation and more in partnership with over 900 community organizations. The system has also launched a virtual behavioral health support program and improved consumer access to care by pairing teams with founders from innovative companies in order to provide patients with market-leading technology.
Hackensack Meridian Health (Edison, N.J.). Hackensack Meridian Health has innovation at its core, and fosters this value in all of its branches and endeavors. The Hackensack Meridian Center for Discovery and Innovation includes 29 laboratories, 185 scientists and $175 million in research commitments across five years. Meanwhile, Hackensack Meridian Health’s HMH Research Institute is a connected research ecosystem accelerating discovery, innovation, and translation of scientific breakthroughs to address unmet clinical needs. Internal and external innovation spans precision medicine, new device development, new product and solution development, new business model development, and the operation of network business units. Outside of lab-based research and discovery, HMH applies team member wisdom through innovation challenges that allow innovative ideas from all departments to be heard.
Hoag Health (Newport Beach, Calif.). Hoag Health’s unique philanthropic group, Hoag Innovators, has spearheaded many first-in-California technologies. Twice a year, the group meets to hear from leading clinicians at Hoag pitching innovative technology, research, and programs in their respective specialties. In just six years, Hoag Innovators has grown from an idea to a thriving and active group of over 118 philanthropists from more than 60 families. As of May 2023, the group has raised $10,550,000 and has invested $4,650,000 in 17 projects that span cancer care, women’s health, neurologic care, heart and vascular care, radiology and imaging, and infection prevention. Additionally, their endowment has grown to over $10,000,000. Recent projects include Vectra WB360 Whole Body 3D Imaging, which uses AI to map out areas of concern on the surface of patients’ skin, and the NK Cell Therapy Program, which is a phase II clinical trial for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
