Innovation and collaboration in VISN 10

The VISN 10 Innovation and Improvement Summit celebrated and showcased health care innovation and collaboration.

Earlier this year, innovators gathered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to collaborate on the future of health care. Together, they worked to develop strategies on how to continue cultivating innovation and improvement processes across VA, network with other innovators, celebrate accomplishments of the previous year, and connect with local industry and academic health collaborators.

The summit began with a focus on innovators and Veterans by Dr. Carolyn Clancy, assistant under secretary for Health for Discovery, Education and Affiliate Networks. “We have frontline staff nationwide with ideas looking to translate them into solutions, united by a desire to share health care innovations to benefit our Veterans,” she said.

Clancy also lauded VISN 10’s 2023 achievements and those who helped expand the VHA Innovators Network (iNET) by adding three new sites. VISN 10 is now home to eight of iNET’s Innovation Specialists, the most in iNET. Innovators from the VISN also submitted more applications than any other VISN to the VHA Shark Tank Competition.

Winning practices

This resulted in two winning practices: Supporting Community, Outpatient, Urgent Care and Telehealth Services, or SCOUTS, which originated at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, and Veterans Impact Project, or VIP, from VA Central Ohio Healthcare System.

Innovations from VISN 10 haven’t just made their way through VHA Shark Tank Competition. Clancy also noted the projects that have made their way from VISN 10 to the new VA Intrapreneurial Product Marketplace (VAIPM). Innovations such as Pillow on a Roll, DropEase, Kyphotic Wedge, and the Hinged Tub Transfer Bench, which all originated at VISN 10 facilities, are listed on VAIPM for increased access to Veterans and VA providers.

Innovation specialists Melissa Yates from Ann Arbor VA and Andrew Scheffer from Detroit VA led an engaging roundtable discussion with Veteran Service Organizations who were attending the Summit to foster collaboration and explore avenues for enhancing healthcare innovations for Veterans. Yates discussed innovation as core to the VA mission: “We have a bottom up, employee driven approach. Innovation is about empowering employees who already have the passion to solve a problem that they often witness every day.”

Lisa Doyon, deputy director of Systems Redesign and Improvement at the VHA National Improvement Office, emphasized the importance of building a culture of continuous process improvement during her presentation. She engaged participants in an exercise to discuss their top concerns and the ongoing efforts to address them.

Salvador Guerra, process improvement coordinator at Saginaw VA highlighted the crucial relationship between leadership and improvement staff in fostering and sustaining a culture of improvement.

Kit Teague, Executive Director of VHA Innovation Ecosystem, emphasized the need for collaboration in driving innovation for Veterans. “Only through collaboration and contributions from both industry and government can groundbreaking technology be transferred across society, transforming the way the world works.”

Danielle Hagan, diffusion specialist, spent time with attendees to walk them through the operating model of  VHA Innovation Ecosystem. This session allowed attendees to discuss national stakeholder support for replication and scale of promising practices, how to better develop knowledge bases for innovation, how to determine practice impact and how to facilitate replication across the VA health care system.

Infrastructure of collaboration

Allison Amrhein, director of iNET, highlighted the intersection of innovation and improvement. Day three brought insights from VA Under Secretary for Health Dr. Shereef Elnahal on the importance of a culture of innovation across VHA and recognition for several local innovators.

Dr. Ginny Creasman, executive director of Ann Arbor VA, closed the conference by acknowledging frontline staff’s contribution and the collaborative spirit defining VA’s strength.