Last week, the researchers and clinicians in residence at Children’s Hospital Boston gathered under the auspices of the Innovation Acceleration Program at CHB for an afternoon of “TED-like” talks and demos. Since we mentioned it here, it was only appropriate that we go to check it out. If you want to watch the whole afternoon of talks, the recording has been posted online. (For a really good discussion of what it takes for a clinician to bring an innovation from idea to practice, watch Dr. Pedro del Nido’s talk at the 2 hr mark).
The point of the sessions was to promote collaboration between the relatively autonomous clinical and research departments at CHB, and pitch the innovation grants available to clinicians and researchers at the institution. Dr. Joseph Madsen MD, one of the recipients of the grants, explained that small innovation grants, which don’t require a lot of preliminary data or extensive applications, are helpful in exploring ideas that otherwise would not have been pursued. Another theme of the talks was that, from an institutional perspective, a great way to support innovation from within is to have a place where innovators can bring napkin-drawing level ideas to establish time of invention and the institutional know how to connect the napkin artist to people who can bring the idea to the world. Two ideas that followed that path were a head wrap for re-warming babies during cardiac surgery thought up by nurse Karen Sakakeeny and an implantable kidney dialysis unit that will be undergoing clinical trials soon originated by Hiep T. Nguyen, MD.
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