Innovators in Scrubs Students Pitch to Joseph Brant Hospital Leaders for Entry to The Clinic @ Mac
![Feature image](https://healthsci.mcmaster.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/fhs-news-web-image-jbh-team.jpg)
A team of students in the Innovators in Scrubs program identified opportunities for innovation at Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH). The team presented their findings, and solution ideas, to leaders within JBH and McMaster University's Faculty of Health Sciences.
A team of students in the Innovators in Scrubs program identified opportunities for innovation at Joseph Brant Hospital (JBH). The team presented their findings, and solution ideas, to leaders within JBH and McMaster University’s Faculty of Health Sciences.
Sarrah Lal is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and co-facilitator of the Innovators in Scrubs program. She teaches her learners to focus on creating value. “They look for health challenges, or opportunities for innovation, and then go on to design relevant and impactful solutions,” Lal said.
“The Innovators in Scrubs program is all about having a needs-driven process towards innovation. The primary issue is about defining and understanding the unmet clinical need,” added Dr. Abubaker Khalifa, co-facilitator of the Innovators in Scrubs Program and Critical Care Physician & Clinical Innovation Lead at JBH. “Only after [defining and understanding the problem], do we look at these innovation opportunities and try to see whether these projects could have grounds for becoming a successful venture.”
Since February, the students have been working with clinical teams at the hospital to identify where they could ease pain points and build efficiencies through innovation. They explored unmet needs through meetings with important stakeholders and further literature research to understand the practical clinical landscape. After all this analysis, they short-listed four unmet need areas and came up with exciting solutions:
- A digital ICU dashboard that optimizes clinician workflow and access to care providers
- An optimized consultation request process
- An app to simplify medical records for patients
- A dispatch service to simplify non-urgent medical transport bookings
“I find it very inspiring – young, bright minds, fresh eyes on what, in some cases, are legacy type issues that we in the organization may be blind to just by virtue of habituating to our society’s constant workflows,” said Eric Vandewall, President and CEO of JBH.
“It is important for us to identify any opportunity we can [to use] our resources in the smartest way possible,” added Jessy Samuel, Director of Critical Care, IPAC, Pharmacy, Laboratory and Diagnostic Imaging at JBH. “What [the Innovators in Scrubs] have done is challenge us to think about another opportunity, another way, by bringing innovation forward.”
Three of the projects presented underwent further development at The Clinic @ Mac over the summer.
A new session of the Innovators in Scrubs program will launch soon. Students from all levels and disciplines are encouraged to apply. Sign up for the Michael G. DeGroote Health Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship initiative’s mailing list to learn how, and when, to apply.
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