MobiHealthNews’ Emerging Technologies Series spotlights organizations developing, scaling and investing in innovative healthcare technologies. What follows is Part 5 of a seven-part series:
Debra Beauregard, director of medical intelligence and innovation at Rady Children’s Health, tells MobiHealthNews how the pediatric health system takes a deliberate, collaborative approach to evaluating healthcare technology.
MobiHealthNews: Tell me about some of the technologies that you’ve piloted.
Debra Beauregard: So, a simple one, I think, that a lot of institutions are looking at is DAX Copilot from Microsoft. Getting the adoption, getting those champions, getting people to try it first. That, I think, was key to us. And then we’re not telling the story; IT is not telling the story and sharing how great that solution is, or how it saved time, or how it improved allowing our providers to have more face time with patients. It’s the providers themselves. It’s those champions who are sharing the success of the solution, and then that just builds more and more people and again, kind of demystifies it, gets people to play with it, gets people to try it out, and I think it is the champions that are the ones that are sharing it.
MHN: How can you tell which tools are not overhyped when you receive pitches? Do you get a lot of pitches from companies that are overhyping themselves?
Beauregard: I know we definitely get pitches like that, and it’s really taking the time to do a deeper dive. At children’s hospitals, we are very collaborative, and if it’s been put into place at another children’s hospital, or it’s been in an adult hospital, we’re going to reach out and learn more about it. But it’s spending the time. It’s just taking the time with each of the products, and really looking everywhere, from the leadership to the tech behind it. Getting the right people in to kick the tires, knowing that it’s going to fit into our workflow.
We’ve brought in solutions in the past where we maybe didn’t follow all of our process improvement, how it’s going to fit into workflows, and if you take a solution, you put it over here but nobody can find it, nobody can see it, nobody can access it, nobody knows how to access it, they don’t trust it, they don’t know what it is, you know, it’s not going to get adopted. I think that’s the key.
MHN: When do you take on a technology, what is the process of scaling it?
Beauregard: As we’re doing our problem framing, we want to know where else is there a problem. So, if it’s a problem in the PICU [Pediatric Intensive Care Unit], let’s see to what degree it’s a problem in the PICU, let’s see to what degree it’s a problem in the CVICU [Pediatric Cardiovascular Intensive Care Units] or peds floor [pediatric units] or emergency department.
We know ahead of time that we’re looking for a solution that’s going to be able to fit, and the bigger that problem is, and the more departments it impacts, the more motivated we are to address it.
We’ve had solutions come in that are designed just for the NICU, but they performed so well for the NICU that we’re now co-creating with them to bring it into the PICU and the CVICU, or the oncology unit. So, we love to partner to be able to build those solutions in other locations.
So, piloting … a lot of companies will come, and say, “Do you want to pilot this?” That’s tough. I mean, that’s kind of a land-and-expand, in a way, a strategy. Once you’ve piloted something, if you’re going to go to that length to pilot it, integrate it into your workflow – I mean, just go straight to purchasing. I mean there are a lot of things, different products that we bring in and we pilot and test them, but by-and-large, we know ahead of time.
We’ve done some things in a test environment, or we’ll take a device home and play with it, or we’ll bring it in. Or we’ll go to other institutions that have it and spend time with them, and how did they integrate it? What problems did they face? How did they overcome those problems? That’s the best. Everyone’s doors are so open if you ask.
You were talking about some of these companies coming in – is it a partnership, or is it a sale? Is it a drop-it-and-go, or is it something that’s going to require a continued partnership in that relationship to ensure that there’s training, that it’s been adopted, that it’s working properly. What if it’s not? How can we pivot? So, when we’re looking for partners, we are really looking for those that we feel like it’s a partnership versus something we’re buying on Amazon.
Listen to the conversation here.
