WIHI: What Can You Learn in 90 Days? IHI’s Innovation Process

​Date: March 22, 2012

Featuring:

• Andrea Kabcenell, RN, MPH, Vice President, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Lindsay Martin, MPH, Executive Director for Innovation, Research & Development, Institute for Healthcare Improvement
• Bela Patel, MD, Assistant Dean of Healthcare Quality and Division Director for Critical Care Medicine, The University of Texas Health Science Center

Where do new ideas for how to improve health care come from? Sometimes they start with a hunch or an expressed need from health care providers; sometimes they’re unearthed by deciding to make a dramatic reduction in mortality in a resource-poor setting or by drawing a line in the sand on the wasteful practices of fee-for-service medicine.

Whatever the motivation or source — whether a hunch or a need or a challenge — even the best-sounding new improvement ideas need careful vetting and scrutiny and, if appropriate, a well-designed test to determine if an innovative approach to better patient care can make a difference in an actual health care setting. Not every new idea flourishes, but chances are it’ll die on the vine without an effective and efficient way to determine its potential contribution. This, in a nutshell, is the rationale behind IHI’s 90-Day Research and Development Process.  

Now in its sixth year — and its 23rd 90-day wave of putting innovative ideas through a disciplined, evaluation pipeline — IHI’s R&D process has had its share of wins: improvement “bundles,” the Global Trigger Tool, the optimal elements of best stroke care, the early thinking and widely disseminated framework of the Triple Aim, and much more.

How is it possible to conduct R&D on a “shoestring”? What are the core components, the resources, and the steps necessary for an effective 90-day process? What kinds of innovations has IHI put to the test, which ones generated valuable learning, and, most importantly, what kinds of fresh approaches could your organization use to generate, evaluate, and — when viable — turn into effective improvement processes?  

WIHI host Madge Kaplan welcomes two people who have helped shape and nurture IHI’s 90-day R&D process since its inception: Andrea Kabcenell and Lindsay Martin. They couldn’t be more passionate about the process and possibilities and necessity of R&D, and they share the nuts and bolts and the vision that could become part of your agenda, too. Rounding out the program is Dr. Bela Patel of The University of Texas Health Science Center and Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. Dr. Patel is in the process of jumpstarting R&D work based on what she recently learned at IHI’s Innovation College.