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so the research project that I want to talk with you about today is a project that we're undertaking with the support
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of the Mac Center here at Penn and this this research examines a phenomenon which is literally sweeping the country
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in the world of healthcare innovation is all the buzz in the world of healthcare
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these days and what we're finding is that a number of hospitals academic medical centers in particular have
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created a new role in their organization and that role is called chief innovation
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officer sometimes it's called vice president for innovation but the person who occupies this role is tasked with
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trying to develop new approaches new solutions innovative ideas and drive them through the organization what we're
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interested in in the in the project is trying to understand number one why hospitals are investing in the creation
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of this new role and perhaps the structure of the center number two who were the people who were being called on
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to head up these these initiatives and number three what are the outcomes our rates of innovation in any way affected
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by the creation of this role and how so this research were on the sort of the front end of the process here we're
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interviewing chief innovation officers and other people sort of around the country and academic medical centers and
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we're probably halfway down the road in terms of the data collection process and
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I'd be happy to share some of the findings with you at some point during this conversation we're having
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well thing I love about this project is it sort of fits right Foursquare in the center of the mac centers mandate and
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and the mac centers mandate and the and the the research itself the goals of research or to contribute in two
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dimensions one is the development of and further refinement of theories of innovation in the context of large
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complex organizations and number two is so what are some of the practical applications of the research that we do
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so we're not undertaking this research simply to advance theory but we're also
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very very interested in the practical side of this so what seems to be working in what context what can we learn about
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the way in which it's working or the kind of obstacles that organizations doing this encounter that we can then
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disseminate and let others learn from so that the process of the development of innovation of new approaches in these
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complex wildly complex academic medical centers can unfold with fewer problems and perhaps better outcomes
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so what's really interesting about this is that while everybody agrees that the
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current dilemmas that our healthcare system is facing require innovation and innovation everybody's talking about
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innovation the centers for innovation are slow a little diffusing somewhat slowly that themselves and what we found
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there are two things that are important at this point one is the question of so who's getting picked to play the role of
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chief innovation officer and what we find there is that sometimes the candidates are internal people the
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people are chosen are internal people physicians who understand the institution its culture well and in
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other cases they're outsiders who don't have an MD degree but who've been very
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successful in moving the needle on innovation in other settings outside the the world of healthcare that's
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interesting because there are two quite different theories about the capabilities that are required to be
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successful the second thing that we're learning is that implementation is the
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stumbling block while it's easy to get one of these things off the ground and
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to hire somebody it's it's at that point that the real hard work begins and what
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we're finding is that in some cases there's been a certain amount of success
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in moving in needle on innovation in other cases it's been a really tough slog and implementation is proving to be
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a huge challenge so what's really one of the things has been really interesting about this is to
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see how innovation is defined in different settings that we've observed and what we're finding is in some
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settings it's relevant early to find perhaps in terms that most of us might sort of off the top of our heads
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associate with an academic medical center their innovations in medical technology or innovations and surgical
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procedures but in some settings the definition of innovation is much broader and includes innovations and human
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resource practices innovations in the way workflows are defined and it's sort
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of a much broader view and what one of the things that we're interested in and
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we think we are onto something here is it seems that when somebody is hired from the outside to play this role of
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chief innovation officer and when I say outside I mean not only outside the academic Medical Center itself but
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outside the field of medicine in general they tend to take a much broader view of
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what innovation encompasses so the the range of initiatives that are undertaken under their Aegis is somewhat broader
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than the range of things that are undertaken initiatives that are undertaken when it's an MD who is in
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this role of chief innovation officer that has I think real implications down the road for how institutions that
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haven't already set up an Innovation Center haven't identified and hired a
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chief innovation officer might want to think about what they want to accomplish with this role because the kind of
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person you choose for that role is going to have a major impact on how innovation
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gets defined internally and then what the consequences are subsequently so what's next well I'm working with
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Kyle Meyers who's an advanced doctoral student in our department here at wharton of health management economics
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and three undergraduates in the engineering school on the work in health care that work we're in the process of
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finishing up the data collection and and that should be completed rather soon one
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of the fun things about this project is that as we've gotten into it what we
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found is that this role of chief innovation officer exists in other sectors of the economy outside
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healthcare and it's going to be very very interesting in terms of what's next
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to see that whether the kinds of things that we're finding in the world of healthcare also apply to similar kinds
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of initiatives outside the world of healthcare my suspicion at this point is that there will be some crossover and
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the so some of what we're learning about more and less effective initiatives in
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the world of healthcare will be relevant for organizations that are anticipating
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adding this position of chief innovation officer outside the world of healthcare
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so we're very excited in a practical sense about the implications of our findings in the world of healthcare to
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the world outside healthcare you