Hospitals and Health Systems Are Leading Innovative Efforts to Advance Health

For the millions of patients who come through a hospital’s door each year, they see their hospital as a place of caring, comfort and healing. Hospitals and health systems also are incubators of innovation, ideas and medical progress.

Hospitals and their care teams are constantly driven to improve patient care. They are always on the hunt for better, more efficient and more effective ways to restore a person’s health.

Many of the great advances over the past few decades against heart disease, stroke and cancer, for example, have resulted from fresh research, new thinking and a willingness to experiment with different approaches.

The relentless pursuit of new knowledge, invention and innovation is a hallmark of America’s hospitals and health systems. And it’s something they are committed to continuing and leading the way toward the future.

In recent years, the dedication to innovation has been fueled in part by technology advancements. Patients right now and in the future can expect more care delivery that is fueled by 3D modeling, predictive analytics, advanced robotics for surgeries and treatments, chatbot systems that provide 24/7 personalized health advice, and using drones for deliveries to alleviate supply chain issues.

Exchanging ideas like these is what drives innovation. AHA’s Leadership Summit, which will be held July 16-18 in Seattle, brings together many of the best minds in health care, medicine and technology with a shared passion for innovation as the road to advancing health.

At the Summit, attendees will hear about innovative approaches for delivering better care and greater value, ensuring financial stability, addressing workforce challenges, and improving the health care consumer experience through operational excellence, creative partnerships and redefined delivery models.

Innovation can take many forms as hospitals and health systems continually demonstrate. At this year’s Summit, you’ll hear how:

• Henry Ford Health System based in Detroit has expanded behavioral health integration using 100% virtual care that has led to positive patient satisfaction, high depression and anxiety remission rates, and reduced physician burnout and administrative burden.
• Northern Light Health in Maine has used technology to create a better care experience by implementing patient self-scheduling, on-demand telehealth and e-consults to improve access to subspecialists.
• Mayo Clinic based in Rochester, Minn., has implemented strategies to create a more seamless, integrated experience for patients by aligning their digital and in-person engagement with care delivery.

In addition, we’ll be joined by Amy Webb, a world-renowned futurist as well as the founder and CEO of Future Today Institute, who will discuss what health care could be like 10 and 20 years into the future. The Summit also will feature a Startup Showcase highlighting six leading early-stage companies that are developing novel solutions to address health care’s most complex and pressing challenges.

There’s still time to register for this year’s AHA Leadership Summit. Please view the agenda and register today. In addition, please visit our Telling the Hospital Story webpage for examples of how hospitals and health systems are driving innovation and to share your own organization’s story with us.