October 31, 2003

Strategic Planning Spotlight: Clinical Innovation Task Force

Since the MGH embarked on an intensive strategic planning effort to determine the future direction of its clinical programs, members of seven task forces have been meeting, planning and preparing to make recommendations to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee. Hotline is highlighting the work of some of these task forces.

The main goal of the Clinical Innovation Task Force is to ensure that the MGH remains on the cutting edge when it comes to using technology for patient care. This means continuing the hospital's tradition of developing clinical innovations in-house and importing technology from other sites.

"Our task force took a broad view of clinical innovation," says David Rattner, MD, director of the Minimally Invasive Surgery Program for the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology (CIMIT), chief of MGH General Surgery and chair of the task force. "We wanted to look at innovation in a different way. We are not focusing just on new devices or drugs, but rather looking at innovative systems that can help organize and support patient care."

According to Rattner, the first task of the committee is to synchronize and coordinate the resources within the hospital that already exist to facilitate clinical innovations. Committees and programs such as the Innovative Diagnostics and Therapeutics Committee, the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and CIMIT all facilitate innovations but may not be linked or streamlined with other key departments.

The committee members have created an inventory of clinical innovations that are under development at the MGH and elsewhere, and have identified barriers to implementing such innovations at the hospital. Based on themes identified in the inventory, three subgroups were formed to focus on the areas of technology,
translational research and process of care.

To better harness the research capabilities at the institution, the task force is proposing to establish a Clinical Innovations Council that would issue requests for proposals based on criteria such as co-sponsorship by a laboratory and a clinical site, impact on clinical practice, and ability to obtain future funding. The council also would address issues regarding integration of innovations into clinical environments.

The committee is proposing to invest in technology support systems that include both transactional components to support patient care and database components to support clinical and outcomes reporting, patient safety and reporting to regulatory bodies.

In addition to looking at what innovations are available, task force members also are evaluating the barriers to innovation that exist at the hospital and developing solutions to overcome them. Examples of barriers include significant financial obstacles; cost of malpractice insurance; lack of clinical research training, personnel and space; and reimbursement issues from insurance companies.

The committee is proposing possible solutions to these barriers including considering different cost accounting methodologies to support innovations, developing advocacy efforts to address malpractice costs and reimbursement deficiencies, and creating structures and incentives to provide protected time and training for research efforts.

Any employee is welcome to submit ideas to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee by visiting http://is.partners.org/mghstrategicplan or by sending written ideas through interoffice mail to the Strategic Planning Steering Committee, Bulfinch 240.