RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Small innovations can make a big difference.
Just ask the people who work in WakeMed’ s neonatal intensive care unit. The hospital has installed NICVIEW cameras so parents of newborns can monitor their children’s progress from their personal smartphones. This has been a particularly valuable asset during the past year when COVID-19 protocols have limited personal hospital visits.
But there was a problem. The micro USB power adapters inserted into the backs of the cameras were unprotected and the cables would often break when the equipment was bumped or moved. So the cables had to be replaced regularly, resulting in additional cost, camera downtime, extra work for staff and potential inconvenience for parents. There are about 60 NICVIEW cameras in operation across the health system, so it wasn’t an isolated issue.
“These are just a couple of examples of the clinical innovations, both big and small, taking place within our hospital systems and health care organizations every day,” said Greta Brunet, who with colleague Corie Curtis started the North Carolina Biotechnology Center’s Clinician Innovation Initiative. Brunet, a former physician assistant, is senior director of investments with the Emerging Company Development team and Curtis is executive director of NCBiotech’s Greater Charlotte Office. “It’s this type of creative thinking we want to encourage and support to benefit patients and medical practitioners alike in North Carolina.”
NCBiotech and UNC FastTraCS are collaborating with WakeMed and 10 other healthcare systems across the state to do just that – turn good ideas into useful clinical innovations. A two-day virtual conference, Accelerating Health Care Innovation in North Carolina: Charting the Course, will connect participants with the people, insights and strategies they need to navigate the creative process, from ideas through execution. It will be held September 23 and 24 from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
The $25 cost of admission will include access to session recordings after the conference, as well as free admission to a separate Health Innovation Summit sponsored by Charlotte-based RevTech Labs on September 20-22. That event also is virtual.