Why Rural Hospitals May Have Some Advantages to Drive Tech Innovation

Rural hospitals and health systems may not have the size, resources or scale of their urban and academic medical center counterparts, but they have ideal traits to help spur technology innovation.

Rural health organizations offer the agility, practicality and a culture of creative problem-solving, notes Jason Cohen, M.D., in a recent blog. Cohen, formerly chief medical officer at North Valley Hospital in Montana, is now chief medical officer-inpatient for Qventus, a tech company providing AI-powered care operations automation software to improve health system efficiency.

Rural hospitals, by necessity, are experts in working “lean,” Cohen writes. “They typically lack the resources of larger systems, but their experience of doing more with less makes them understanding partners for startups.”

Feedback loops also run deeper in rural settings, he notes. Providers and patients are used to more personal, face-to-face interactions — and often are more generous with their time and insights. Though the volume of interactions may be lower, the quality is higher, offering sharper, more actionable feedback for startups, Cohen adds.

How Rural Hospitals Can Advocate for Innovation

Cohen offers the following suggestions for ways rural hospitals can become advocates for innovation to drive greater tech advances that can lead to greater efficiency in the field.

1. Develop in-house expertise across clinical, technical and operational teams. This helps rural systems become active co-creators of solutions.
2. Step into startup spaces such as digital health summits and health conferences like the AHA Rural Health Leadership Conference.
3. Build innovation coalitions across hospitals to attract startups that need broader populations to develop their products. Innovation partnerships thrive on mutual readiness, and rural systems that show up informed, organized and curious can help steer solutions that can work for them and others in the field.