- Prepare to dive into the forefront
of healthcare innovation at our 14th annual meeting coming
up on April 8th
through 11th at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, with thousands
of industry leaders converging over four dynamic days
of discussions on crucial topics from health IT
to executive leadership.
It's where the future of healthcare takes shape.
We can't wait to connect with you in person
and engage in these important conversations.
- Welcome everyone
to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm Mariah Mohamed, writer
and moderator with Becker's Healthcare,
and I'm absolutely thrilled to have with me today.
Diana sch Hornstein from the Innovation Office at
a Mass General Brigham.
Diana, it's very nice to have you on the podcast today.
To get us started, would you mind please introducing
yourself and telling us a bit about your background?
- Hello everyone. I'm Diana Schwartzstein,
and I'm excited to be here today to discuss, uh, my journey
and passion for, uh, driving growth
and fostering talent within the healthcare field.
I began my journey, my career, getting my master's in, um,
health communication.
This is really when I realized my passion for, uh,
driving change and making a significant
impact in healthcare.
Um, throughout my career, I've led various, um, programs,
uh, organizational, financial and strategic,
but recently I've been focusing on building talent inclusion
and growth programs for innovators,
but also those contributing to innovation.
Um, I believe if we prioritize nurturing talent
and fostering growth, um, we have the ability to create a,
a healthcare community where,
where everyone can truly thrive.
Thank you for having me.
Um, I'm excited to share more, um, and,
and to be with you today.
- Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for giving us
that background, and like I said, I'm very excited
to have you on the podcast today.
Um, to get us started
and dive into the topics, uh, a a quick overview for you,
what are the biggest issues you're following in
healthcare in this year?
- Yeah, so my passion is really driving innovation forward
and being part of National Brigham,
a national leader in medical research, education,
and patient care, it offers a tremendous platform
to catalyze change.
So I'm closely tracking emerging technologies like AI
and how they're reshaping healthcare delivery.
I'm also following how organizations are
empowering their people, specifically innovators,
to get more technologies to patients.
Also looking at how are organizations navigating these
complicated cost challenges
and what are they doing to access patient care.
Um, so those are the the top things
that I'm, I'm currently tracking.
- Got it. Got it. Thank you so much for giving us that.
And what inspired the creation of the Innovator Development
and Growth Division at MGB?
Um, and what goals does it aim
to achieve within the organization?
- Yes, so at Mass General Brigham,
we have a sizable community,
yet only a small number are
actively contributing as innovators.
This highlights a critical need
to maximize the commercial potential of our research
by empowering more innovation, more innovators,
and getting more breakthrough technologies to patients.
Recognizing this need, we research the barriers
to innovation for our community, both through surveys
that inspired a Harvard Business School case study
that's actually now taught in the classroom to MBAs
and through executive education
and from published research by Mark Ucci,
who's an MGH radiologist
and the founder of the Mesh platform,
which is an innovation training
and cross institutional networking hub
with over 3000 researchers, clinicians
and others, um, involved.
And it continues to grow, um, really driven
by a shared vision.
Mark and I decided to unite our efforts
to do something more strategic
and to enable transformational impact
on the operational lead.
And Mark is the clinical lead.
We also have a project lead, a new gupte, um,
but with the full support
of our systems chief innovation Officer, Chris Coburn,
this newly launched unit, um, as you mentioned,
the Innovator Development
and Growth Division, IDGD, it provides
a comprehensive innovation training and development hub.
We aim to enable more innovators,
support existing innovators,
and ultimately drive more action innovation.
But we're also trying to really create and change culture.
Um, you know, a culture
where innovation is not only supported, but it's encouraged.
Um, so that that's what we're working on right now.
- Yeah. Thank you so much for giving us that insight
and, you know, being Women's History Month,
I think the next question that I should ask, uh, in, in
what ways does IDGD foster inclusivity within the
innovator community, particularly in empowering
underutilized talents such as women, um,
and what could other health systems
learn from this, do you think?
- Yeah, I'm so excited you're asking about this
because it's an area we've spent so much time.
Um, our approach stems from our research on the barriers
to innovation, which we've used to tailor our programs
to reach a broader audience, especially those
that are currently underrepresented.
The HBS case study led by HBS Professor Katie Kaufman
shares efforts to understand why certain groups participate
less and how to effectively engage them.
This case, uh, features our CEO and Dr.
Anne Lansky, who is a transformational leader
and champion of this work.
Um, and the case study findings align closely
with Mark's findings as well.
Um, so let give you some tactical examples of
how we go about this and,
and hopefully others can learn from it.
First, our annual Rising Innovator program,
it includes 50 individuals from across the system.
We intentionally ensure that at least half
of the cohort are women with an aim
to directly impact the future
composition of the innovator community.
Additionally, we customize content
to address specific barriers we've identified.
So for example, we found that women tend to view themselves
as less as innovators.
Um, so we design build into our program content
around empowering participants to see themselves
as innovators and also encouraging them to take more risks.
Finally, we offer programs a variety of programs tailored
to meet unique needs, preferences, and learning styles.
We've got it all covered. We offer in-person programs,
on demand programs, peer to peer, our diverse range of, um,
different formats ensures
that everyone can find the right fit
for their journey towards, uh, innovation and
and and towards growth.
So those are some ways we've been going about this.
- Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And you know, I imagine with all the wonderful things
that you've discussed so far, um, you know, data has
to come into play at some point in time.
So what role does data play in identifying
opportunities and progress?
- Yes. Um, data is key.
Uh, data plays a a very key role in our approach
and we're deeply rooted in data decision making.
So, um, as I mentioned, we conduct research
to identify barriers, um,
and then use those insights to design effective.
So, so that's one way.
We also use data to identify high potential populations and,
and to reach those who may have been overlooked.
Um, and we're also committed to tracking individuals who go
through our programs in our databases, and,
and by monitoring their progress over time,
we can measure the impact of our success and
or course correct as needed.
So, uh, data really is key, both sort of at the,
the research stage, the, um, looking for your populations
and then making sure you're actively monitoring them
and supporting them, um, through their journeys.
- Yeah, yeah, makes sense.
Thank you so much for sharing that.
And, uh, do you,
can you share any early successes in notable achievements
that have stemmed from initiatives led by the IDGD?
- Thanks for asking that.
I think one, um, you know, good place to start is
we have 50 people that go
through our rising innovator program each year.
And what we're seeing is that the people that go
through our program are recommending their
peers to go through their program.
And we're creating a community of like-minded people
who are encouraging each other to pursue innovation.
And that's a direct, um, impact of the programs
that we're designing is that we're creating this community
where not only are they thinking about themselves
as innovators, but thinking about their peers and colleagues
and, um, bringing them in to join us as we move forward.
- Wonderful, wonderful.
And, um, the last question I wanted to ask you is
how does the IDGD collaborate with external partners
to achieve its mission?
- Yes. So we have placed, um, significant
emphasis on leveraging partnerships
to achieve our objectives, both through industry
but also academia, especially being in Boston.
Um, I'll give you a a few examples.
The first one is we collaborate closely with Babson College
to deliver two of our, our programs
by combining academic faculty with our innovation experts.
We create a highly tailored learning experience,
and it's been, uh, very unique and,
and so far has played out really well.
Um, we established a strategic advisory council,
which includes industry leaders who actively shape
and advise our initiatives.
Getting outside perspective, um, on how
to go about these programs and learn from their experience
and expertise has been, has been invaluable.
And, um, finally we are committed to collaborating
with organizations and healthcare systems
that share our vision and objectives.
Um, we probably, I would say at least once a week, um,
meet, have, uh, dedicated meetings on these exchanges,
sharing insights, successes,
and addressing common challenges.
Um, this ongoing exchange of knowledge
and experiences enables us to learn from one another
and form collaborations
that propel us towards our collective goals.
So, um, those are our few examples.
- Yeah. Thank you so much for those final thoughts.
This has definitely been an amazing
and informative discussion.
So again, I wanna thank you so much
for coming on Kers Healthcare.
We really do appreciate it.
Um, and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
- Thank you so much for having me.
I really appreciate it too.