Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco, CA, USA; University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Information Systems, Partners HealthCare, Somerville, MA, USA.
Healthc (Amst). 2018 Jun;6(2):150-155. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2017.09.003. Epub 2017 Sep 27.
Despite considerable investment in digital health (DH) companies and a growing DH ecosystem, there are multiple challenges to testing and implementing innovative solutions. Health systems have recognized the potential of DH and have formed DH innovation centers. However, limited information is available on DH innovation center processes, best practices, or outcomes. This case report describes a DH innovation center process that can be replicated across health systems and defines and benchmarks process indicators to assess DH innovation center performance. The Brigham and Women's Hospital's Digital Health Innovation Group (DHIG) accelerates DH innovations from idea to pilot safely and efficiently using a structured process. Fifty-four DH innovations were accelerated by the DHIG process between July 2014 and December 2016. In order to measure effectiveness of the DHIG process, key process indicators were defined as 1) number of solutions that completed each DHIG phase and 2) length of time to complete each phase. Twenty-three DH innovations progressed to pilot stage and 13 innovations were terminated after barriers to pilot implementation were identified by the DHIG process. For 4 DH solutions that executed a pilot, the average time for innovations to proceed from DHIG intake to pilot initiation was 9 months. Overall, the DHIG is a reproducible process that addresses key roadblocks in DH innovation within health systems. To our knowledge, this is the first report to describe DH innovation process indicators and results within an academic health system. Therefore, there is no published data to compare our results with the results of other DH innovation centers. Standardized data collection and indicator reporting could allow benchmark comparisons across institutions. Additional opportunities exist for the validation of DH solution effectiveness and for translational support from pilot to implementation. These are critical steps to advance DH technologies and effectively leverage the DH ecosystem to transform healthcare.
尽管在数字健康 (DH) 公司和不断发展的 DH 生态系统方面投入了大量资金，但测试和实施创新解决方案仍面临诸多挑战。医疗系统已经认识到 DH 的潜力，并成立了 DH 创新中心。然而，关于 DH 创新中心的流程、最佳实践或成果的信息有限。本案例报告描述了一种可以在医疗系统中复制的 DH 创新中心流程，并定义和基准化流程指标，以评估 DH 创新中心的绩效。布莱根妇女医院的数字健康创新小组 (DHIG) 使用结构化流程，安全有效地将 DH 创新从想法推进到试点阶段。在 2014 年 7 月至 2016 年 12 月期间，DHIG 流程加速了 54 项 DH 创新。为了衡量 DHIG 流程的有效性，定义了关键流程指标，即 1）完成每个 DHIG 阶段的解决方案数量，2）完成每个阶段的时间。23 项 DH 创新进入试点阶段，13 项创新因 DHIG 流程识别出试点实施的障碍而终止。对于执行试点的 4 个 DH 解决方案，从 DHIG 投入到试点启动，创新推进到试点的平均时间为 9 个月。总体而言，DHIG 是一种可重复的流程，可解决医疗系统中 DH 创新的关键障碍。据我们所知，这是第一份在学术医疗系统中描述 DH 创新流程指标和结果的报告。因此，没有可用于与其他 DH 创新中心的结果进行比较的已发表数据。标准化的数据收集和指标报告可以允许机构之间进行基准比较。还有机会验证 DH 解决方案的有效性，并为从试点到实施的转化提供翻译支持。这些是推进 DH 技术并有效利用 DH 生态系统来改变医疗保健的关键步骤。
