InnovationEx, Innovation Experience, is hosted by NACHC’s Center for Community Health Innovation. In 2023, it was hosted as a pre-conference to FOM/IT. With over 100 attendees and 50+ organizations represented, it was a packed day that focused on convening health center innovators to help take innovation to the next level – operationalizing it and sustaining it for the future.
You walk into a room, and you are instantly greeted by innovators from across the nation. This could be the start of a joke, but this was my sentiment as I walked into NACHC’s inaugural InnovationEx 2023.
As innovators we often enter rooms prepared for battles we didn’t yet know existed. We know our ideas will be questioned, our methods doubted, but we are thankful each time because we know the work health centers do impact millions, to be exact over 31.5 million people. So, it feels very different to walk into a room and wonder: “what other amazing ideas will I be exposed to today?”
Through curated panels, discussions, and group activities NACHC’s Center for Community Health Innovation (CCHI) team sought to bring those ideas forward. And hearing the panels of experts walk through conversations on how to operationalize and sustain innovations for the future, some amazing points came to life.
Our panels shared that medical knowledge has expanded so exponentially that it doubles every 73 days. (Peter Densen, n.d.) To utilize innovation is no longer a question, but a necessity. Our panelists agreed with one health center innovator (Rich Bettini, Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center) that innovation moves at the speed of trust. And it is our role to be drivers of innovation and trust within our health centers, PCAs, and HCCNs.
Later in the day, when talking about sustaining innovations, Cecilia Corral talked about the need to “fall in love with the problem and date the solution”. The panel also shared amazing tools that could help sustain innovations in the long run, from flexibility and kindness to having a sound financial strategy plan and building a culture of innovation and experimentation.
But it wasn’t enough to listen from panelists, we listened to the people that maybe mattered the most – the audience. Those attending InnovationEx are some of the thought leaders in community health center innovation. Led by Brynn Kolada, from IDEO.org, the room came alive during our “creative tensions” exercise.
We debated three simple questions, that are so relevant to the conversation of innovation:
- Innovations have the best chance for long-term success when:
- Point A: there’s a centralized innovation unit driving it
- Point B: teams across the health center contribute to it
- Innovations have the best chance for long-term success when:
- Point A: several health centers work together on it simultaneously
- Point B: it starts within a single site and then spreads
- To foster more sustainable innovation, we need more investment and resources (beyond funding) in:
- Point A: workforce + workforce development
- Point B: technology.
It was an incredible honor to be in the room, to have listened to the amazing conversations happening that day, and to know that this is just the beginning of what is yet to come. It left me with a taste of “I want more,” and I cannot wait to see InnovationEx 2024! I hope you will be there, and that together we will continue to shape what comes next.
Are you an innovator? Make sure to sign-up to NACHC’s Center for Community Health Innovation mailing list or to add your name to NACHC’s InnovationEx 2024 interest list.