In Healthcare Innovation, Collaboration Is All the Rage

Health systems and hospitals are ditching their competitive aspirations and joining forces to develop innovative new technologies and programs

Expensive technology, limited budgets and uncertain ROI are all combining to make healthcare innovation a challenging arena. So how are the nation’s forward-thinking health systems and hospitals responding?

They’re collaborating.

In what is often considered a competitive market, healthcare’s innovation leaders are finding value in sharing their ideas with their peers, in hopes of developing technologies and programs that can be scaled across much larger and more varied patient populations. And with the weight of multiple organizations supporting these ideas, they hope to create sustainability with more receptive payers, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Just a few months back, Providence, Novant Health, Baylor Scott & White Health and the Memorial Hermann Health System announced the launch of Longitude Health, with the three-pronged goal of transforming business models, improving health system performance and empowering healthier futures.

“Innovation is a multi-faceted strategy and we are approaching it pluralistically,” Sara Vaezy, Providence’s chief strategy and digital officer, said in an e-mail to HealthLeaders.. “Thorny operational challenges that require networks, capital, and broad expertise to come together to solve these issues at scale can be tackled in partnership across health systems.”

“The defining components of the health system strategy of the future are transformation through innovation and collaboration,” she added. “We need to position ourselves as a trusted partner and navigator of services for our communities—rather than trying to do it all ourselves. As healthcare institutions, we must now think beyond our individual organizations and core delivery models to build solutions that serve the greater good across health systems, patients, and communities.”

[Also read: Longitude Health Aims to Provide a Blueprint for the Health System Team-Up.]

“We will also pursue innovative individual partnerships with organizations that have built up scale and special capabilities in certain areas,” Vaezy noted. “In some cases, we’ll also engage in innovation on our own before seeking partners. There are many roads to innovation and this accelerates one of the paths.”

The latest to join the trend is the American Telemedicine Association (ATA), which unveiled the ATA Center of Digital Excellence (CODE) this week. The new center is billed as “an innovative alliance with leading health systems dedicated to advancing the integration of digital care pathways to support patients throughout their healthcare journeys.”

CODE’s founding members are Intermountain Health, the Mayo Clinic, MedStar Health, Ochsner Health, OSF HealthCare, Sanford Health, Stanford Health Care, UPMC and West Virginia University Medicine Children’s Hospital. The center will be overseen by Elissa Baker, BSN, RN, formerly of eVisit, the FemTech Lab, Phase2 Health and KeyCare, who was named the ATA’s SVP of digital strategy and clinical Innovation in October.

The ATA is uniquely positioned to usher in a new era of collaboration within healthcare,” ATA CEO Ann Mond Johnson said in a December 12 press release. “Through CODE, we are convening top health systems to establish models that seamlessly integrate digital care into broader care delivery approaches. Telehealth is not an either/or solution but a critical addition to in-person care, addressing gaps where traditional access is limited or unavailable. With these renowned health systems, we are setting the standard for how innovation and technology can enhance, extend, and equalize access to high-quality healthcare for all."

In a more unique partnership, Mass General Brigham and Tampa General Hospital have been collaborating for more than three years, beginning with the expansion of MGB’s innovative Home Base program for veteran healthcare and wellness to Home Base Florida in 2021.

“Our collaboration with Mass General Brigham is key to advancing innovation and expanding access to world-class care across Florida,” Tampa General CEO John Couris said in an e-mail to HealthLeaders. “We’re sharing expertise and best practices to capitalize on what both systems have to offer, leading to the best possible patient outcomes.”

The two health systems have been working together on cancer care and treatments, a bone marrow transplant program and cell therapies through the TGH Cancer Institute. They’re also planning to build a new radiation center in Palm Beach Gardens, where patients will be able to access either MGB or TGH clinicians for radiation oncology, medical imaging and clinical oncology services.

“The increased collaboration between our two health systems is a reflection of our mutual goals: To enhance, innovate and be at the forefront of medicine to offer Floridians the absolute best care options while simultaneously responding to the very complex needs each person has over the course of their lives,” he added.