“Research Day” is just one example of how Brigham and Women’s Hospital shows its commitment to innovation and research. Last fall the Biomedical Research Institute at BWH held its first “Research Day,” a day-long public celebration featuring discussions on the importance of medical research and included 150 poster presentations by leading BWH researchers on today’s hottest health topics, such as obesity, healthy aging and personalized medicine. Additionally, the BRIght Futures Prize was awarded to a researcher and his team who are searching for effective and responsible ways to use DNA sequencing technology in newborns to help families understand a child’s genetic risk for developing diseases such as diabetes, heart disease or cancer.

Tufts Medical Center is a pioneer in groundbreaking research, including numerous clinical trials taking place in Boston. Their mission is not only to advance knowledge but to train physicians and non-clinicians to become the investigators of the future. Tufts Medical Center research led to the discovery of drugs that prevent the body’s rejection of transplanted organs, coining the term "immunosuppression," and also brought to light the link between obesity and heart disease.

Akron Children's Rebecca D. Considine Research Institute includes visionary centers of excellence that are dedicated to exploring forward-looking research fields with potential for novel investigative advances – one of which is the Center for Nursing Research. The breadth and scope of nursing science are wide-ranging, encompassing topics from patient care and safety to nursing productivity. By evaluating promising new patient care strategies and methods, nursing research contributes to compassionate care — easing the emotional burden of children and families coping with serious, sometimes painful, life-threatening medical conditions. The pursuit of nursing excellence through research also generates “best practice” patient care models to enhance the practice of nursing nationally.

The belief at Greenville Hospital System is that, to heal compassionately they must teach innovatively. Health system leaders believe there is a straight line from innovation in medical education to the best health care. First-year medical students are required to participate in a six-week EMT course to test their clinical, critical problem-solving and communication skills in the heat of true-to-life disaster situations. While other medical schools incorporate EMT training in their curriculums, Greenville is the only one in the nation to require students to take a 200-hour certification course, maintain certification for two years and work as EMTs in the community during that time. The intent is to give them both practical experience setting broken bones, treating wounds and opening airways but also to connect the medical students to the community and patients in a novel, intimate way; teaching them interpersonal skills such as empathy and how to communicate.

Medical oncologists in the Center for Melanoma Oncology at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center are pioneering new treatment approaches, including new trials of combination and adjuvant therapies, for all forms of melanoma. A groundbreaking discovery was made as the team led a trial resulting in the first drug to demonstrate a survival benefit for patients with metastatic melanoma and the first drug to be FDA-approved for melanoma in 13 years.

The Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute Research & Innovation Center at University Hospitals is the largest biomedical research center in the state of Ohio. The team of caregivers and researchers at the Cardiovascular Research Center work specifically to improve the clinical diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, using both translational research as well as advancements in biomedicine. Through this commitment to innovation, they work to improve industry standards and quality of patient care.

Lack of complete, accurate communication at points of transition is a major issue affecting the quality and safety of patient care in the perioperative setting. Health Central's innovative model demonstrates how a structured handoff tool and standardized communication process of essential care elements prevents patient harm, adverse events and negative patient outcomes. 

Nurses and staff at Columbus Regional Hospital figured out how to analyze past patient data in a different way. The result is an Early Warning System that helps with patient care. It pinpoints very ill patients before their condition deteriorates and sends the information to portable, handheld devices alerting specially trained care teams in time to head off critical consequences. The Early Warning System, coupled with other innovations, has led to a reduction in cardiac/respiratory arrests, reduction in Critical Care Unit mortality and improved the care of Congestive Heart Failure patients.

University of Chicago Medicine provides world-class medical care, but also does much more - conducting a wide range of clinical and basic science research. Innovation is a way of life there, bringing together experts from diverse backgrounds to explore fundamental questions in biology and genetics. Scientists across the University of Chicago Medicine are working in multidisciplinary teams to understand and better treat many neurological conditions, conducting critical clinical and neurophysiological studies and providing valuable collaborations with the neuroscience researchers in other departments that leading to better patient care.

Florida Hospital's Innovation Lab serves as an incubator of ideas, where some of the biggest challenges within the delivery of health care are solved. Teams of doctors, nurses, directors, administrators - anyone who has an idea of how to improve services - are able to work together toward the betterment of patient care. The Innovation Lab's creative space and collaborative atmosphere galvanize each team's thought process for the task at hand.  Here they work toward improving critical aspects of health care, such as staff responsiveness, administering medications, hospital cleanliness, equipment allocation, enhancing communication between departments, doctors, nurses and patients, and much more.

Boston Children's Hospital has made a strong commitment to fostering innovation that can be seen through the Innovators' Forum that they host monthly. The forum is a monthly meeting for innovators and people interested in innovation at Boston Children's Hospital. It is intended to help build and educate a community of innovators who can support one another. Both established guest speakers and innovators looking for input are able to present their ideas and solicit feedback, resources and help.

Ohio, Kentucky and Maine were recently recognized during the Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT's annual meeting as states that are using health IT in ways that will make a meaningful difference in improving health care for patients.

The Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural Graduate Medical Education was launched in partnership with the Baraboo Rural Training Track, the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and several rural hospitals. The intent of the collaborative is to take advantage of efficiencies of scale and relieve some of the administrative burden. It is designed to provide leadership for nurturing a cooperative approach for small community organizations to work together to offer resident training experiences in their local hospitals and clinics and progress is being made in expanding the number of graduate medical education opportunities that are available to physicians in rural areas. The Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural Graduate Medical Education is an example of hospitals/health systems coming together to create innovative solutions.

Members of the Johns Hopkins Hospital melanoma program include surgeons as well as experts from dermatology, medical oncology and nursing, among other disciplines. These clinicians are involved in elevating melanoma clinical research. While research certainly plays a prominent role within the program, the Hopkins Melanoma Program is a perfect example of clinical teamwork, with staff members meeting regularly to discuss patient cases and to brainstorm about treatments and care. The program provides a platform for clinicians to work together, not only in patient care but also in clinical trials designed to develop better treatments.

Nothing is more important to seriously ill children, and those who love them, than a cure. That's why University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital and its physician-scientists devote so much to discovering new therapies and providing hope. Their innovations include testing new ways to control the most common, aggressive and deadly childhood brain cancer, medulloblastoma, through developing new drugs that work by regulating an enzymes; developing new therapies to stop leukemia cells' invasion of the brain and nervous system; and creating tools to help teens better manage Type 1 diabetes through use of continuous blood-glucose monitors.

Maimonides Medical Center uses a pregnant robot to help train future physicians. The birthing simulator can be programmed to replicate numerous scenarios ranging from a normal vaginal birth to a Cesarean section or breech birth.

The Missouri Hospital Association has announced a new “Grow Your Own” program to support hospitals' efforts to strengthen and grow the health care workforce. Beginning March 1, 2013, the MHA Center for Education will accept grant applications from Missouri hospitals to augment funding for programs that attract and retain talent and for programs that build leadership skills within the hospital community.

Vet Connect is a web-based initiative to raise awareness about the employment, health and community resource needs of veterans on Long Island. This public awareness initiative is the work of the Nassau-Suffolk Hospital Council (NSHC) and its member hospitals. The initiative underscores hospitals' recognition of the extraordinary service veterans have made to this country and hospitals' commitment to assisting veterans with their employment and health care needs. Once users click on the Vet Connect icon, they are brought to interior pages that provide direct links to hospitals' job banks, military skills translation assistance and health care career training programs for veterans. The service is also accessible via hospitals' websites.

The Henry Ford Medical Group has a long history of innovation over the past century, including the first open heart surgery, the first kidney and pancreas transplants, delivery of new medicines from heparin to human insulin, as well as new therapies such as spinal radiosurgery to reduce cancer pain while preserving ambulation.

Hartford Hospital was home to Connecticut's first "simulation center," which has grown into the Center for Education, Simulation and Innovation, the centerpiece of Hartford Hospital's pioneering vision to revamp the medical educational system. CESI is a regional and national training destination. As the second-largest surgical center in New England and the northeast's largest robotic surgery center, Hartford Hospital continues to be a hub for medical training. CESI features exact replicas of an operating room, intensive care unit, delivery room and trauma room. It has the same equipment as the hospital, including two da Vinci robots and two robotic simulators designed especially for training purposes.

The research program at Beaumont Hospitals grows directly out of their commitment to high-quality patient care with rigorous programs of applied and clinical research emphasizing research with direct application to patient care. Since the Beaumont Research Institute was established more than 30 years ago, it has been improving patient's lives through quality clinical research. Beaumont research consists of drug and device development and testing, patient care outcomes, pre-clinical and laboratory research. More than 900 research studies are active at Beaumont Hospitals in Michigan, including applied and clinical research, as well as clinical trials. Currently, more than 430 investigators in more than 35 departments conduct research

Allina Health is committed to creating innovative, sustainable models of care and sharing best practices and innovations.  To meet this goal, Allina Health established their Center for Healthcare Research.  The focus is on identifying new care models and treatments that can help transform health and health care, while advancing their strategic vision to improve patient care and serve as a catalyst for change in health care locally and nationally.

Cardiac surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore were the first in the world to use a surgical robot to help perform minimally invasive aortic valve bypass surgery.

The Center for Surgical Innovation at the University of Colorado Hospital is dedicated to teaching the latest surgical techniques, many involving minimally invasive approaches, to practicing surgeons, residents and medical students. CSI training helps students keep pace with technological advances - in imaging, precision instruments and prosthetics - that have dramatically expanded the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques.

The Department of Health and Human Services recently presented awards to 404 hospitals, 38 organ procurement organizations and 174 transplant programs for achieving and sustaining national goals for organ donation. Such efforts to make improvements in the donation and transplantation field will continue to help save lives.

According to an analysis led by researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center a new innovative robot-assisted procedure for kidney cancer is shown to reduce operating time and shorten critical stage of surgery.

Nationwide Children's Hospital recently earned the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Silver Medal of Honor for its leadership in organ donation. This medal is awarded to hospitals that have achieved at least two of three cohorts as part of the Breakthrough Collaborative on organ donation launched in 2003 by former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson.

To design clinical experiences that meet patients' needs, the Mayo Clinic created The Center for Innovation (CFI) and uses a defined methodology to bring discipline and focus to the work of innovation. The center is like a giant incubator - a space for nurturing new ideas, enabling them to grow, mature and evolve until they are ready for the patient. Also at the center they observe patients, interview families, conduct traditional consumer research, but also visualize, model, prototype and test possible health care delivery solutions, creating innovations that will transform health care delivery.

Boston Children's Hospital's Innovation Acceleration Program is focused on enhancing the innovation culture and community within the hospital. The program supports grass roots innovation, providing employees with a variety of formal and informal resources. The Innovation Acceleration Program also supports strategic institutional innovation initiatives and seeks to identify unmet innovation opportunities and catalyze solutions in those areas. The program's goal is to turn Children's employees' innovative ideas into products, technologies or clinical improvements to make health care safer, better and less expensive.

The eEmergency system installed by Avera, a 29-hospital system headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D., connects rural clinics and emergency rooms to board-certified emergency physicians and specialists 24 hours a day. The system uses several technologies, including high-definition videoconferencing supported by a dedicated broadband network.

The Center for Advanced Heart Failure and Cardiothoracic Transplantation at Jewish Hospital is leading the country in the removal of left ventricle assist devices from patients using a recovery protocol. The groundbreaking treatment for advanced heart failure has led to the removal of left ventricular assist devices in patients for more than a year and helps heart failure patients avoid or delay heart transplants. 

Intermountain Healthcare teamed with GE Healthcare in an effort to reduce patients’ CT radiation doses by up to 50 percent.  CT imaging is a critical tool in helping physicians diagnose disease and has positively impacted millions of adults and children. Through collaboration with GE Healthcare and implementation of innovative imaging technologies and system-specific solutions, Intermountain will continue to lead in further reducing radiation dose while maintaining exceptional image quality in diagnostic procedures. The program will include a focus on the unique needs of pediatric patients, leveraging technologies and protocols to help doctors match body size and type to appropriate scans.

Sharp Healthcare was recognized with the 2012 Circle of Life Award®: Celebrating Innovation in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. Sharp has developed a model for palliative care in an integrated delivery system that includes strategic integration of palliative care to manage population health, using systematic advance care planning and providing primary care-based palliative care early in the disease trajectory

Calvary Hospital was recognized with the 2012 Circle of Life Award®: Celebrating Innovation in Palliative and End-of-Life Care. Calvary is devoted to providing adult palliative care with an ingrained culture of family-centered care and a strong history of caring for the dying.

Akron Children’s Hospital (Haslinger Family Pediatric Palliative Care Center) was recognized with the 2012 Circle of Life Award®: Celebrating Innovation in Palliative and End-of-Life Care.  They excel in evidence-based clinical care, education and research and have successfully integrated palliative care throughout the whole hospital.

With many years of experience working to improve health literacy, the Iowa Health System, developed the "Always Use Teach-back" toolkit. Using the toolkit, providers ask patients to explain in their own words what they will do after a health care visit. The method encourages plain language dialogue between provider and patient and confirms understanding of treatment, and medication and discharge instructions. The toolkit provides an interactive learning module and coaching tips, as well as tools to enhance learning, build confidence and assess progress.

In 2011 Peninsula Regional Medical Center was recognized as one of the nation’s Most Wired hospitals for using high-tech systems to improve the quality and safety of patient care and to become more efficient. The nation's Most Wired hospitals are making progress towards greater health information technology adoption, according to Hospitals & Health Networks' 2011 Most Wired Survey.

The Connecticut Hospital Association recently recognized Greenwich Hospital and St. Vincent’s Medical Center with the 2012 John D. Thompson Award for Excellence in the Delivery of Healthcare Through the Use of Data.  The team from St. Vincent’s Medical Center was recognized for its Implementation of High Reliability Behaviors Resulting in Significant Reduction of Preventable Harm to Patients and Employees.  The team from Greenwich Hospital was recognized for its project, A Novel, Comprehensive, Multimodal Analgesic Regimen for Joint Replacement Surgery.

During the Ohio Hospital Association Annual Meeting Awards Recognition Dinner on June 12, they proudly launched a special yearlong campaign, Hospital Champions, with Donate Life Ohio to promote and increase organ donation registration. By participating, hospitals will not only have access to community education and engagement resources, registration materials and marketing tools for use within hospitals and communities – they will document their community involvement and be recognized as community leaders before their peers, employees, patients and the public at OHA’s 2013 Annual Meeting.

Morton Plant North Bay is improving patient care by using voice-activated operating room suites. For surgery patients, the sophisticated technology means surgeons can work more efficiently and effectively. In effect, doctors and operating room staff can concentrate more on providing patient care rather than manually running and moving medical equipment.

St. Joseph's/Candler is using new technology to treat sinusitis improving patient care through less pain and giving patients a shorter recovery time.

A physician at Intermountain Medical Center invented the Smart Tray to improve diabetes care. The Smart Tray gives caregivers and patients precise information that will empower them to better manage diabetes. The tray includes seven separate sections, each with its own sensitive scale, and is programmed with a database of 7,000 food items.

Preventing Readmissions through Effective Partnerships (PREP), a joint initiative between Illinois Hospital Association’s Quality Care Institute and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, recently marked the first successful year of the four-year program. More than two-thirds of Illinois hospitals are participating in PREP to help improve care transitions and reduce readmissions, and work towards raising Illinois’ performance from the bottom quartile nationally to an upper quartile by 2014.

University of California Davis Health System recently recognized one of their ophthalmologists, Mark J. Mannus, M.D., for his work in establishing eye-banking and tissue donation services. In 1980, Mannus and UC Davis Medical Center assumed leadership of a fledgling eye bank, and grew its services over the years into a full-service nonprofit agency. Today the organization operates three regional offices to facilitate organ and tissue donations in Northern California and Nevada. It offers donated eye, skin, cardiovascular, cartilage and musculoskeletal tissues as well as organs for transplant. In 2012, it supplied nearly 95% of the eye tissues needed for corneal transplant surgery by hospitals and clinics in the region, and in 2012 led the nation in the number of organs recovered.

The CAMC Patient Simulation Center is the largest and most advanced facility of its kind in West Virginia and a premier center nationally.  At the center, students and health care professionals are able to gain experiences similar to real medical settings by treating life-like, computer-controlled mannequins, which helps to prepare them for the demands of the field.

The Ohio Hospital Association recently added a new online tool to their website, Spanish Advance Directives, which provides a Spanish translation of Ohio living will and health care power of attorney information. This translation is based on the original version of the "Choices:  Living Well at the End of Life" document, which includes a health care power of attorney, a living will and organ donation preferences.

Since 2003, Michigan hospitals in partnership with Gift of Life Michigan began participating in Michigan Hospital Association Keystone: Gift of Life, using evidence-based best-practice approaches to the organ donation processes. Michigan and its hospitals have steadily set records in organ and tissue donation and transplantation, contributing significantly to the saving of lives as well as working to improve the number of eligible donors that result in donation. MHA Keystone: Gift of Life continues to pursue ways to increase organ donation in Michigan through monthly conference calls, annual workshops and a website that supports participants with education and shared best practices.

The Minnesota Hospital Association (MHA) launched the Donate Life Minnesota Hospital Campaign in partnership with the organ and tissue donation agency, LifeSource. This is a hospital-based collaborative program is designed to increase support for organ and tissue donation throughout the state of Minnesota. MHA is challenging all hospitals across the state, regardless of size or type, to work toward this common goal by educating employees and communities about the importance of the decision to be an organ and tissue donor.  The goal of the campaign is to increase the number of registered donors in the state by 100,000. 

Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center is working with the New York Organ Donor Network in launching a public education campaign, “Sign Up to Save Lives.” The organ donor drive, which will reach out to residents, workers and visitors is intended to encourage individuals aged 18 and over to register on the New York state Donate Life Registry.  In an ongoing campaign region-wide, the Donor Network hopes to gain one million new sign-ups by the end of 2012.

The Arkansas Hospital Association, along with leaders from some of the state’s largest hospitals, partnered with the Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency (ARORA) and pledged to promote donor registration by encouraging hospital staff members to join the Arkansas Donor Registry if they have not already done so. The hospital-focused campaign has the goal of enrolling 80% of the 18 and older population in Arkansas, a 25% increase in the number of registrants.

Central Valley Medical Center has created the “LPN Education Partnership.” The partnership between the small rural hospital and a local community college provides education for licensed practical nurses (LPNs). The program has helped the community expand educational opportunities while helping the hospital address the issue of a continuing nursing shortage. Hosting the program locally saves students from having to drive a significant distant to reach a college campus. Since 2005, the partnership has allowed many students to obtain needed educational requirements to become an LPN without traveling.

Aventura Hospital and Medical Center has been recognized for creativity and innovation in implementing processes or programs designed to improve patient care in emergency departments.  AHMC’s ED team developed and implemented a program that reduced wait times, increased efficiency and dramatically improved customer service and patient care.

Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, in conjunction with Baylor College of Medicine, has launched an innovative program: “Pediatric Simulation Training for Emergency Pre-hospital Providers” (Pedi-STEPPs). This is the first time a pediatric hospital has created a comprehensive yearly training course, and by offering pre-hospital providers the opportunity to work through complicated procedures without the concerns or risks associated with learning on real patients, this course will enhance care. Members of the Houston Fire Department EMS will participate in hands-on skills- and scenario-based training. Providers will go through simulated scenarios that are rare and high risk, offering the ability to practice life-saving skills for neonatal and pediatric patients.

The Centura Health Centers for Clinical Innovation represent a coordinated approach to develop and deploy new and sophisticated health technologies across Colorado. The Centers for Clinical Innovation serves to assess, evaluate, develop and enhance new technologies in innovative radiologic and surgical care.

DMC Harper-Hutzel Hospitals have “Smart Rooms” that link clinical software technology to medical devices and workflow solutions for improved quality and efficiency. This new technological approach sends real time clinical data from devices like telemetry and vital sign monitors, beds and IV smart pumps directly into the electronic medical record without delay or error.

The Innovation Acceleration Program at Children's Boston focuses on enhancing the innovation culture and community within the hospital. The program's goal is to turn Children's employees' innovative ideas into products, technologies or clinical improvements to make health care safer, better, and less expensive.

The Swedish Acute Stroke Telemedicine Program, located at the Swedish Neuroscience Institute, uses video conferencing technology to make its stroke expertise available to other communities and ensure a stroke patient's window of opportunity doesn't close before he or she receives critical treatment.

Doctors at the Lung Institute at Columbus Regional Hospital are using technology that is helping to diagnose lung diseases at earlier stages. Using innovative Cellvizio technology with bronchoscopy doctors are able to view and reach areas of the lungs in a way that was never before possible.

The Innovation Institute at Henry Ford hospital merges the ideas of physicians, scientists, engineers, designers, technologists and others to pioneer solutions to problems across the spectrum of health care. These include innovations in technology and procedures for treating congestive heart failure, diagnosing and treating cancer, and applying radiation to tumors

The Healthy Avenues Van program, was developed by Overlook Hospital to deliver comprehensive health screenings and education to residents from 23 towns in Union and Morris County. The program, in partnership with other community organizations, provides participants in underserved areas with free and low-cost health screenings

Today over 85% of all prostate removal surgeries are done using robotic surgery technology, but Dr. Vipul Patel, medical director of the Global Robotics Institute at Florida Hospital, has been using these techniques since it was approved by the FDA over 10 years ago. As a leader and innovator in this field, Dr. Patel performed his record breaking 5,000th robotic prostate removal surgery in 2011.

The Innovation Lab at Rust Medical Center in New Mexico partners with their healthcare teams and its customers to create an exceptional healthcare experience through innovation. The ideas and experiences they receive from their community help them develop new ways to provide healthcare.

Charleston Area Medical Center (CAMC) has put into place the Geriatrics Initiative, because West Virginia has the second oldest population in the country. As the age of the population increases, so does the need for quality, accessible care for the elderly, as well as highly trained specialists to provide that care. The initiative comprises the coordinated development of three new training programs in geriatrics for physicians, pharmacists and nurse practitioners, plus two pilot projects specifically geared toward seniors and two new geriatric research projects.

Grande Ronde Hospital in northeast Oregon established a telemedicine network to provide rural patients greater access to specialty physicians. The hospital's commitment is to expand local opportunities for rural health care with telemedicine through medical consults, specialty care, education opportunities and more. The hospital is already partnering with specialists from coast to coast to provide consultative services in cardiology, neurology, neonatology, dermatology, intensive care and much more.

El Camino Hospital's Fogarty Institute of Innovation, an educational non-profit organization, mentors, trains and inspires the next generation of medical innovators. Dr. Thomas J. Fogarty, internationally recognized cardiovascular surgeon and inventor, and other prominent physician innovators and engineers teach and mentoring young physicians and engineers in the techniques and processes that will lead to the next medical breakthroughs in patient care.

The Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital is devoted to revitalizing and redesigning the delivery of primary care in order to provide the highest level of clinical excellence. The center partners with people across the country to improve primary care through collaborative work in research, innovation, education, and policy reform.

The Center for Medical Education and Innovation at Riverside Methodist is a state-of-the-art medical education facility with a training center incorporating some of the world's most advanced healthcare technologies available. Through the use of human patient simulators and other advances in medical education technology, the Center enables Riverside Medical Education to simulate patients and the patient experience in a wide variety of clinical situations. It offers a safe way for medical professionals to practice new technologies and advanced procedures without putting real patients at risk.

The WakeMed Health & Hospitals Center for Innovative Learning is designed to facilitate realistic multi-disciplinary clinical training and education for all levels of health care providers. Health care providers have the opportunity to practice skills and gain clinical confidence in a controlled, yet realistic environment

St. James Parish Hospital in Lutcher, Louisiana utilizes a “Telestroke” program that involves state-of-the-art equipment allowing a neurologist on staff at Ochsner Medical Center to evaluate a patient remotely and work with staff in the hospital to recommend on-the-spot treatments

McKee Medical Center in Loveland and North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colorado are part of the Banner Health System and through an innovative use of electronic medical records, have significantly decreased mortality in sepsis for ICU patients. The EMR system monitors patients on a 24/7 basis and when symptoms appear that may signal sepsis, the EMR sends an alert to the physicians and other clinicians caring for that patient.

Rapides Cancer Center at Rapides Regional Medical Center in Alexandria began treating its first Arc Therapy patient in December 2010 using an advanced form of Image-Modulated Radiation Therapy and Trilogy. Arc Therapy automatically formats the radiation beam to the precise specifications of the tumor as the machine arcs around the patient, while maintaining small margins surrounding the tumor so healthy tissue receives minimal exposure to radiation.

The Innovation Center and Orthopaedic Program at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has been recognized for its ongoing efforts to promote patient- and family-centered care by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality on its new web resource for health care professionals – the Healthcare Innovation Exchange.

The Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation (CFI) is using a patient-centered focus to transform the experience and delivery of health care for patients everywhere. The CFI team develops ground-breaking solutions and facilitates the application of these discoveries in the practice of medicine.

At Nationwide Children's Hospital, doctors are helping to offset the demand for blood with “bloodless” techniques. In December 2010, Nationwide Children's performed its first bloodless heart transplant on a 6-year-old boy, who became one of the youngest patients known to have a successful bloodless heart transplant

Abington Memorial Hospital created the Green Team in an effort to incorporate environmentally friendly practices and improve community healthcare quality. Through recycling efforts, environmentally friendly purchasing, energy conservation and more the program has had a major impact on reducing waste and pollution. They have produced cost savings and improved efficiencies for both the hospital and the community.

Since 2002, the Center for Innovation at Johns Hopkins Hospital has been creating new models of health care delivery that improve patient safety, quality and efficiency. Experts have developed tools and training programs that engage health care workers-from frontline staff to top leadership-to realize radical, measurable advances in care delivery.

Through innovative research efforts and the teaming of a comprehensive corps of transplant surgeons, physicians and support specialists the Ochsner Multi-Organ Transplant Institute in New Orleans has performed more than 3,500 life-saving liver, kidney, pancreas, heart and lung transplants. Their team delivers exceptional clinical care while addressing the emotional, financial and practical support issues so often faced by patients and their loved ones.

Boulder Community Hospital has minimized the need for follow-up surgery by employing Colorado's first intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) system. iMRI enables surgeons to obtain detailed images of the brain during and immediately after surgery, while the patient is still in the operating room.

Surgeons at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and Washington Adventist Hospital have taken surgery to the next level by using the da Vinci Si Surgical System. The minimally invasive surgery using uses the latest in robotic technology by virtually extending the physician's eyes and hands through miniaturized instruments into a magnified 3-D surgical field.

Eastern Maine Medical Center has been developing and refining its patient blood management program in a successful bid to decrease the need for blood transfusions. This week, medical experts from Western Australia are in Bangor, taking notes on how to implement a similar program at hospitals there. EMMC's state-of-the-art blood management program has succeeded in dramatically reducing the demand for donated blood.

Medical City was the first hospital in the southwest United States to perform open heart bypass surgery using robotic technology.

Neurosurgeons at Boulder Community Hospital have minimized the need for follow-up surgeries for brain surgery patients by employing Colorado's first intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) which allows for more precise and effective brain surgery.

Loyola University Medical Center's Pay-It-Forward Kidney Transplant Program is the first of its kind. The program begins with altruistic donors who offer to donate a kidney to a stranger, a transplant candidate who has received an incompatible kidney.  That candidate is then able to give the incompatible kidney to a third person and so on. On average, each donation has led to six transplants.

Memorial Health System recognizes the vital importance of training the next generation of health care providers to care for people in Central and Southern Illinois. In 2009, Memorial Health System provided more than $9.8 million to support health professions education.

A telemedicine robot lets the Washington University stroke specialists at Barnes-Jewish Hospital  be "remotely present" in the Parkland Health Center emergency room.

Medical advances achieved at academic hospitals include the first transplants of liver, heart and bone marrow.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital brings gene therapy to life. These gene therapy trials, along with others still in the planning stages, reflect the leading edge of a new age of medical innovation, and the Translational Core Services at Cincinnati Children's are helping pave the way.

Monmouth Medical Center's Program Spotlights Advanced Treatment Options for gastrointestinal disorders.

Beaumont Hospitals  currently has 430 investigators in 35 departments conducting research and more than 900 active research studies.

Medical College of Wisconsin physicians screen newborns for the rare life-changing disorder, PKU, as soon as a baby is born, and prescribe the proper treatment.

Detroit Medical Center's clinical study of a new method for preventing premature birth in millions of women each year will reduce premature births by 45%.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital brings gene therapy to life. These gene therapy trials, along with others still in the planning stages, reflect the leading edge of a new age of medical innovation, and the Translational Core Services at Cincinnati Children's are helping pave the way.

Doctors at Jackson Health System  in Miami, Florida used innovation to treat a rare eye cancer in children. In the past, treatment of retinoblastoma, a rare childhood cancer that occurs in the retina of the eye, often meant removal of the eye or using radiation therapy and chemo to attack the tumor, which can lead to blindness. But doctors from the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center teamed up to implement a new, rarely used technique to treat children with retinoblastoma. Most of the patients are discharged from the hospital the next morning and have no side effects from the chemo.

Robotic legs give parents hope that son may learn to walk at Cincinnati Children's Hospital

Emory Healthcare is providing revolutionary medical advancements

Beaumont Hospitals: Research & Innovation

Doctors at Yale-New Haven Hospital in Connecticut use an iPad to improve patient centered care and quality

OhioHealth Hospitals Using the eICU System

UCLA performs first hand transplant in the western United States