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- This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Koala Eson,
vice President and Chief Innovation Officer
at Children's National Hospital.
K is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
It's great to be with you. Thank you so much, Laura.
Now I'm really looking forward to catching up
with you on some of the interesting
and exciting things you're doing at Children's National.
I know it's such a fascinating time right now in healthcare
and specifically when looking at children's healthcare,
you know, lots of opportunities
to really make a big difference for that patient population.
But before we dive into that discussion,
can you tell me a little bit more
about yourself and your background?
Uh, yes, absolutely.
Um, so, um, as you mentioned, I'm, uh, Ian.
I'm the Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at
Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC And, um,
a little bit about the hospital.
Uh, I would, I would like to mention that it's, uh,
ranked number five in the nation
by US News and World Report.
And, uh, most importantly in the context
of our conversation, uh, research
and innovation is one of the three pillars
of our strategic priorities.
Uh, the other two being, uh, clinical excellence
and community health.
And, uh, we receive more than 70% of our research
and innovation funding from federal agencies.
And the other 30% come from industry foundations
and, uh, internal resources.
And in my capacity as Chief Innovation Officer,
I manage Children's Nationals Innovation Ventures,
which is the, um, innovation
and commercialization arm of Children's National.
And I'm also the principal investigator
of an FDA funded initiative that Children's National has led
for the past 10 years.
And we were just renewed in September, 2023
to a $7.5 million grant, uh, to
continue lead this initiative for another five years.
And, um, under a new branding and all new partnerships.
Uh, so this initiative is now called the Alliance
for Pediatric Device Innovation.
And my background is in mechanical engineering with, uh,
follow on, uh, PhD and MBA degrees.
Uh, my experience all phases
of the total product lifecycle development, uh,
having worked at Intelsat and Accenture
before joining academia
and my own innovations, uh,
as an inventor are still in the market, having been licensed
to companies that are commercializing them.
Uh, my focus in the past 10 years, uh,
has been on building innovation programs, uh, dedicated
to FDA regulated pediatric medical products.
Well, that's a fascinating background
and certainly, you know, such an inspiring field
considering all the good that, you know, that type
of medical innovation can do for a pediatric population.
And from your perspective
and vantage point leading innovation at Children's National,
what are some of your top priorities right now?
What is really encompassing most of your time?
Yeah, thank you for that question.
And I'd like to answer this question in the context of, uh,
what, uh, innovation means in an academic pediatric health
system and what it takes to work in an underserved
and under invested, uh, small pediatric markets.
So with this in mind, our mission is to bring, uh, novelties
and discoveries to the patients
and families that we serve in our own hospital
system, uh, and everywhere.
And so at Children's National Innovation Ventures,
we are laser focused on FDA regulated pediatric
medical products.
So these are in the three categories of, uh, drug biologics,
uh, under the purview of FDA Center for
Drug Evaluation and Research
and Center for Biologics evaluation and Research.
Uh, the second is, uh, the category of devices
and diagnostics, uh, under the purview of FDA Center
for Devices and Radiological Health.
And then the third bucket is, um, digital therapeutics
to the extent that these products are regulated, uh, such
as software as a medical device
or, um, various, um, predictive analytics.
Um, and again, you know, under the oversight
of the FDA Center for Devices
and Radiological Health, uh, so this is our focus
because our resources are scarce, we want to make sure that,
you know, we tackle the products that are in dire need
for the patient population that we serve.
And so we are focused on regulated medical products.
And the way that we source
and scout innovation is through three buckets of
hospital-based innovation.
This is when we work with our clinicians, uh, to, um,
understand the problem statements.
But this is not necessarily, you know, asking the clinicians
to come up with a solution.
But together we, um, identify a problem statement
that is looking for a technological solution.
Uh, the second bucket is a research based innovation, uh,
discoveries that come out of our research labs.
And then the third is open and external innovation.
This is when, uh, we source and scout
and look for, uh, pediatric innovation, no matter
where they are within this context.
Our innovation program is largely, uh, sponsored
through external sources.
So, uh, to answer your question now directly about
priorities, you know, we wanna make sure
that our priorities are aligned with the priorities
of our sponsored, uh, and funded initiatives.
Um, and the FDA grant is a good example of that.
Uh, so these programs are all designed around the most dire
and challenging needs of the most vulnerable children
of all backgrounds who need novel medical, uh,
technologies, uh,
that were specifically studied in the patient population,
uh, as well as innovative medical products such as point
of care or at home devices that help with preventive care
to keep, to keep children away from the hospital.
Um, and you know, I, I will repeat this again, that,
you know, our laser focus is on medical products
that have been specifically studied
for use in the pediatric population.
Uh, you hear the phrase children are not small adults.
Uh, so we need solutions
that are specifically designed for children.
Uh, i, I can bring, you know, give you an example of,
you know, how we actually do that.
And that is, you know, through identifying a need
and doing needs assessment studies.
So on April 26th, we are hosting a symposium on the topic
of, uh, pediatric medical devices
for optimizing the heart brain continuum.
So, um, if you talk to any pediatric cardiac surgeon
or neurosurgeon, they will tell you
that non-invasive continuous monitoring systems is
what they need, and yet there is no solution in the market.
Uh, so on the 26th of April,
we are bringing together the WHO is who in this, uh, domain,
uh, from the government industry
and academia to get the discussion started.
Uh, we'll then use the proceedings from the symposium
to craft an RSP to solicit proposals for pediatric, uh,
medical devices for the perioperative care of patients
with congenital heart disease
and neurodevelopmental disorders.
The RFP will go out about two weeks after the symposium,
and, uh, we select finalists
to present live at our, uh, your medical device pitch,
uh, competition, make your medical device, uh, pitch
for kids competition on October 14th, uh, in Toronto.
And that will be part
of our 12th annual symposium on pediatric device innovation,
which is co-located with the, um,
large med tech conference powered by Ed.
Well, that's fascinating to hear,
and certainly a huge accomplishment in terms of thinking
through, you know, all those connected points
and how you can really innovate in the children's MedTech
space, um, to really make a big difference
for those patients that you're serving
on a consistent basis.
And you know, I, I can see that you've got a lot
of different, um, people that you're working with
and partnerships in the industry and the community, um,
and through the system at large.
When you think about innovation from your perspective and,
and just really, um, you know, how have you seen it grow
and evolve over the last year or two,
and then what are you expecting, um, over the next 12
to 24 months or so?
Uh, or what are you, I guess,
most excited about when you think about this, these types
of innovations and what's possible?
Yeah, uh, as you mentioned, you know,
partnership is really important to us.
Um, you know, uh, uh, we have a small team
of innovation at Children's National,
and we could not have done
what we have accomplished without, uh,
the power of partnerships.
Um, so in the next, um, you know, 12 months,
we are really focused on, um, working
with the small business
and startup communities even more, uh, closely on,
um, conducting a couple of, um, economic, um,
comparative effectiveness studies, uh, to help demonstrate
the value of innovation in a pediatric health system.
And that is, you know, to demonstrate, you know,
what innovation means, right?
Uh, to, um, create value through reduce, for example,
reducing the total cost of care for the hospitals, uh,
and make technologies available where patients are.
So that's why, you know, the point of care
and at home, um, technologies are so important, uh,
to keep children, um, being cared for
by their caregivers and, uh, families at home, um,
and reduce the necessity to come to it, um,
to the hospital and rather, you know, go
to their retail pharmacy, for example,
or, um, uh, use some at home devices for certain, um,
uh, monitoring and data collection, um, needs.
So that's, you know, that that's something that, you know,
we are actively working on.
And, uh, uh, you'll see, you know, some, uh,
success stories hopefully coming out in
the next 12, 18 months.
I'll definitely keep an eye out for that.
Thank you so much, Malala, for mentioning it and,
and really, you know, referencing
what I can imagine will be a, a great initiative
to see the results and then scale from there.
Before we wrap up our conversation,
could you talk about one change that you
and your team has made recently that yielded great results?
Oh, I, I think that, you know, uh, something that, uh,
we keep in mind continuously is, uh, to stay laser focused
and not get distracted by shiny objects.
And so that laser focus for us is really, um, uh, you know,
use the power of, uh, science
and technology, uh, to focus on
regulated medical products.
And so that is the focus of innovation, you know,
within our team.
Um, it's not a huge change,
but it's a, a constant reminder of, uh, you know,
if we don't stay focused, we are lost.
So, you know, as an example, you know, I can, uh, tell you
that, you know, by staying focused,
unregulated medical products, uh, you know,
in the past 10 plus years working
with the FDA on the pediatric device consortia
grant program, we assisted over 400 unique medical device
projects, over 40 startup companies.
And of them, uh, there are over 20, um, medical products
that were cleared or approved, uh, by the FDA, um,
or received C mark, uh, in Europe.
And of the companies that we assisted, eight
of them landed successful exits via acquisition.
Uh, so the key is, again, to stay focused
and be true to our mission, which is to serve children
and families, and these are the results.
I love it. Goa, thank you so much
for joining us on the podcast today.
This has been such a fun and interesting conversation,
and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
Thank you, Laura.
- Elevate your healthcare experience in 2024.
Discover the driving forces, shaping the healthcare
landscape with the NRC health experience perspective.
Be the first to access the insights
and trends in forming the future of healthcare.
Register now to join the live national webcast
and get first access to the report.
Secure your spot@nrchealth.com.