Dive Brief:
- New York-Presbyterian Hospital has taken the unusual step of integrating a tech startup incubator into its IT plans, hoping that contact with startups will improve its health IT use.
- The hospital has rented out space to a New York-based tech accelerator Blueprint Health LLC, and in an especially rare twist, has decided to run computer systems out of Blueprint's offices. It will also have an "innovation space" there.
- The hospital will use the innovation space to help it collaborate with startups and then, bring new technologies over for use in the hospital.
Dive Insight:
Understandably, hospital IT departments have to spend much of their time focused inward, to plan, keep their initiatives moving forward and fight fires. With a few exceptions—such as UPMC, which has done some significant entrepreneurial IT investing—health IT leaders don't have time to keep track of cool ideas from startup land, much less integrate them. But this setup could change all that for NYP.
The hospital has gotten its innovation plans in gear in a particularly elegant way. By siting the incubator on hospital property, and putting computers there, it's found a relatively frictionless way to transfer useful technologies to its IT department. Not only that, this cultural shift is likely to result in more innovation in-house. Now, these plans could founder if the hospital fails to follow through on the opportunities it finds. But regardless, this is a promising strategy.
Want to read more? You might enjoy this story about CMS' recent round of innovation funding.