Health leaders from around the world gathered at Duke Monday for the launch of a new organization designed to promote creative solutions to health care challenges.
The new Duke Institute for Health Innovation, which aims to promote health care innovation across disciplines, kicked off with an inaugural Summit on Transformative Innovation in Health Care. The event took place in the Mary Biddle Duke Trent Semans Center for Health Education.
“DIHI is needed because the challenges in the field of health care are pretty profound, and as a result we have to bring multiple disciplines together—we have to have a direct link from the academic world of the university to the real world of health care," said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, head of global innovation at Duke Medicine. "[DIHI] serves that purpose as a catalyst for the change we can make."
DIHI aims to promote innovation in health delivery and technology, as well as through leadership, applied policy and community building.
DIHI began hosting monthly workshops prior to the official launch. Beginning in May, these covered topics including education, health systems engineering and disease management.
“[These workshops ] get the right people thinking about the right things,” Udayakumar said.
DIHI also hosts events for sharing ideas. The summit included poster presentations of cutting-edge research and other projects.
Ana Quinn, manager of business strategy at the Duke Clinical Research Institute, presented "Business of Healthcare Academy," an educational mobile application for medical professionals set to launch in early 2014. She said the DIHI has potential for encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration.
"It’s a great opportunity to bring in industry and the rest of Duke University to address these challenging issues and to really make an impact in the health sector," Quinn said.
In addition to shaping the health community at Duke, DIHI has already been active. When the DIHI was in its initial stages two years ago, the group cofounded the non-profit organization International Partnership for Innovative Healthcare Delivery. The group connects health care innovators and investors around the world.
Since then, individuals from various companies and institutions, including Kaiser Permanente, GlaxoSmithKline, Innosight, Venrock, The Brookings Institution, Exelixis and GE, have joined DIHI's global advisory board that helps shape the organization along with an internal board comprised of DUHS experts.
Julie Eckstrand, assistant director of clinical support services and quality management for the Duke Clinical Research Unit, added that the DIHI is an important mechanism for progress.
"It will bring the most innovative ideas to life," she said.
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