Partnered innovation to implement timely and personalized care: A case study

Enola K Proctor; Virginia R McKay; Emre Toker; Thomas M Maddox; Cole Hooley; Rebecca Lengnick-Hall; Simon MacGibbon; Bradley Evanoff

doi:10.1017/cts.2021.778

Partnered innovation to implement timely and personalized care: A case study

J Clin Transl Sci. 2021 Apr 8;5(1):e121. doi: 10.1017/cts.2021.778. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Enola K Proctor¹, Virginia R McKay¹, Emre Toker², Thomas M Maddox³, Cole Hooley⁴, Rebecca Lengnick-Hall¹, Simon MacGibbon⁵, Bradley Evanoff⁶

Affiliations

¹ Brown School, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
² Washington University Medical School in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
³ Healthcare Innovation Lab, BJC HealthCare/Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA.
⁴ School of Social Work, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA.
⁵ Myia Labs Inc., San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁶ Division of General Medical Sciences, School of Medicine, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA.

Abstract

Background: Understanding how to translate research discoveries into solutions for healthcare improvement is a priority of NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA). This study, supported by one CTSA, aims to capture one process of shaping and implementing innovations to advance the timeliness and patient-centeredness of cardiovascular care. Specifically, we sought to understand a partnership between a private digital health startup company, a university innovation lab, and an academic health system's cardiology program pursuing this goal.

Findings: The collaboration proceeded through clear phases to address the questions and challenges: problem definition, exploration and formalization of the partnership, innovation co-creation and pilot test, and scale-up planning. Phases were punctuated by key decisions, such as forming the partnership, negotiating terms of the partnership, iterating form and features of the innovation, and exploring sufficiency of its value-add for scale-up and sustainment. Key implementation concepts were apparent, including implementation strategies (e.g., champions and iterative trialing) and the implementation outcomes of acceptability, sustainment, and scale-up. Participants identified potential risks of collaboration, reflected on their co-creation process, and the value of engaging stakeholders in innovation design. Findings may inform subsequent collaborations between innovators and translational researchers.

Methods: We conducted a case study to understand the partnership; characterize the questions they pursued, their decision points, information and data sources; and identify the challenges and risks. Data were collected through a series of four focus groups with members of each partnering organization. A transdisciplinary research team iteratively worked to condense and synthesize data from audio recorded transcripts into a case narrative.

Keywords: Translational research; implementation; innovation; partnership; personalized care.