Utah’s Intermountain Health is hoping that collaborating will equal innovation with new efforts to bring medical advancements to the bedside quicker and more efficiently.
The nonprofit health system has recruited technology heavyweights Intel and computer architecture company Xi3 Corp. as founding partners in its new Healthcare Transformation Lab. Located on the premises of its flagship hospital, Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, the lab will host employees and collaborators as they research, develop and evaluate new ideas to improve patient care.
“The lab is a resource to help bring the ideas of 34,000 people (our employees) to life and understand which ones can impact healthcare transformation (change),” said Intermountain’s Chief Technology Officer Frederick Holston. “We also work on projects with our collaborators.”
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So far, those industry collaborators include Dell, CenturyLink, NetApp and Sotera Wireless.
In one project already under way, employees are working with Xi3 to design customizable hospital rooms where patients can have their vitals monitored without being tethered to wires. Another project is exploring the production of medical device and equipment prototypes with 3-D printers. Yet another project involves the use of a “Life Detector” to provide real-time alerts to caregivers about patients inside or outside of the hospital.
Unlike some other hospital innovation centers, the lab isn’t intended to be a revenue generator for the health system, which comprises 22 hospitals, a 185-physician medical group and an affiliated health insurance company. But Holston said commercialization of some projects will be a nice by-product of the lab.
It’s funded externally and the goal is to make it self-sustaining. “We asked for permission to run off the range and even fail, as necessary, to find the best opportunities,” he said.
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