With the opening of health technology incubator MATTER, more physicians have the opportunity to take their innovations out of the idea phase and into reality.
Chicago-based MATTER opened last week and includes a flexible space for physicians to test new models for health care delivery as the result of a partnership between the AMA and the incubator. The AMA Interaction Studio at MATTER will give physicians the ability to connect directly with entrepreneurs. The collaboration gives clinicians—who may not have business training or the know-how to navigate the startup space—a way to take their big ideas to market.
For example, Dana Edelson, MD, medical director of rescue care and resiliency at the University of Chicago Medical Center, created an algorithm that combs through hospital patients’ vital signs, lab results and other data and alerts medical staff when a patient’s condition is deteriorating—30 hours before clinicians can recognize the signs themselves, she said.
“We task lots of clinicians to interpret vast amounts of data in less and less time,” Dr. Edelson said. “The problem is that human beings aren’t designed to be able to identify subtle trends in data, so we miss the early signs of clinical deterioration in our patients.”
Dr. Edelson was anxious to develop her algorithm into something physicians across the country could use to save lives and money, but she wasn’t sure how.
“I’m not a natural entrepreneur,” she said. “My training is in medicine and biostatistics, not business … what MATTER does for us is give us unprecedented access to mentors, colleagues, capital and curriculum that weren’t otherwise available.”
As a result, Dr. Edelson was able to start Quant HC, a startup that is developing her algorithm into a system called eCART that will keep more patients out of intensive care.
Another physician-led innovation comes in the form of CancerIQ, a digital health company that’s working to lower barriers to personalized cancer care. Using a big data platform, CancerIQ is developing a set of applications that would make it easier for physicians to quickly screen and identify at-risk patients and navigate them to specialty care.
The physicians behind CancerIQ realized clinical genomics and outcomes data would be helpful at the point of care to identify precision treatments, but knew the data needed was trapped in data warehouses, universities and other IT systems across the country. CancerIQ harnesses all of that information, combining siloed data into one, easy-to-use system.
With physician input, developers have made CancerIQ into a system that is intuitive, said Chris Bun, a developer for the system.
“These doctors don’t have the time to sit down with each patient for hours to conduct a genetic assessment,” Bun said. “They have to use their expertise, which means patients’ treatments aren’t personalized.” With a tool that allows for more rapid genetic assessments and quick data sifting, personalized treatments will be more accessible, he said.
In the coming year, the AMA Interaction Studio will be able to foster ideas such as eCart and CancerIQ. The studio will be designed with the physical and virtual infrastructures that will simulate a health care environment. Advanced video and audio technologies will give users of the space a way to better understand workflows and how new products and services will fit into the health care delivery environment of the future.
The partnership with MATTER reflects a commitment to investigating long-term paths to practice sustainability and professional satisfaction through research, data and analytics. The AMA is identifying effective care delivery and payment models that can improve the quality of patient care, reduce health care costs for the nation and increase professional satisfaction—and facilitating physician innovations is crucial in that process.
