|
|
|
Share this email with your colleagues to make sure they get the latest VHA IE news: SUBSCRIBE
|
|
|
To kick off the event, innovation team members from last year’s cohort of VHA Shark Tank winning practices shared their challenges and successes in spreading their innovations to new VA facilities. For these practices, Diffusion Summit was a graduation-style event that marked the conclusion of a year-long journey that began in the fall of 2023.
Diffusion Specialist Carl McCoy then announced each of the graduating practice’s Diffusion Pathways: Organic, Initial, or National. The pathways are selected based on each innovation’s unique needs and what would best prepare them to succeed.
Diffusion Specialist Danielle Hagan led the second part of Diffusion Summit, which focused on VHA Diffusion Talent Accelerator (DTA), a training and mentorship program for VISN and VHA program office employees.
DTA participants shared their experiences from the first year of the program, later reconvening for a separate orientation to identify goals, stakeholders, and tactics for their programs.
To learn more about the 2024 Diffusion Summit and Diffusion Pathways for 2023 VHA Shark Tank winners, read a recent article on VA Insider.
|
The December edition of The Exchange featured a panel discussion about Academic Affiliations across VHA. The monthly panel was moderated by Kelsey Shull, an Innovation Specialist and 2025 Senior Innovation Fellow from VA Augusta. The panelists included Dr. Lindsay Riegler, Director of the Digital and Remote Health Center for Innovation, Shannon Parker, PT, DPT, Program Coordinator at the IDEAS Center for Innovation, Dr. Kevin Carroll, a Clinical Neuropsychologist at Northern California Health Care System, and Dr. John Byrne, D.O., FACP, the Senior Advisor of the Office of Academic Affiliations. They explored how forging dynamic academic affiliations expands collaborative solutions, energizes care delivery, and nurtures the next generation of health professionals. “Having these fresh perspectives—whether from high school students or graduate trainees—invigorates our work and accelerates access to quality services,” noted Dr. Riegler. In 2024, these alliances evolved through new pilot collaborations, ushering in a pathway for exchanging ideas that bolster clinical practice and research.
Dr. Byrne underscored the power of these relationships: “When we bridge VA’s clinical expertise with academic insight, we’re preparing the future workforce, stimulating new approaches, and ultimately improving the Veteran experience.” Looking ahead, VA remains committed to investing in productive academic connections that refine care models and foster meaningful innovation. Through building academic affiliations, the next generation of innovators stands ready to deliver transformative resources for Veterans and their families.
Learn more about VA's academic affiliations here and register to attend the next Exchange call here.
Note: The Exchange is open to VA employees only
|
|
The SHRIMPS Surgical Intraoperative Handoff Initiative standardizes critical information to be conveyed during scrub personnel staff changes in the operating room. The efficiency and effectiveness of these handoffs is key for keeping Veteran patients safe while receiving care.
The SHRIMPS acronym describes necessary aspects of handoff during these technician staff changes: Sharps/sponges, hidden/held items, replaced items, instruments/implants, medications, procedure overview, and specimens.
Over the last year, the SHRIMPS innovation team has been replicating their practice to VA Gulf Coast Healthcare System following the facility’s winning bid on the practice at the 2023 VHA Shark Tank Competition.
“When I am the relief, I feel safe jumping in and taking over knowing that all information has been translated to me,” said surgical technologist Brittany Hickman, describing the practice’s immediate impact on the facility. “It’s thorough, helpful and creates a universal atmosphere. I am really glad we have SHRIMPS.”
To learn more about this practice’s unique tools and visual aids, read a recent VA News article highlighting the replication efforts of SHRIMPS at VA Gulf Coast.
|
|
|
At VHA Innovation Experience (iEX) 2024 in Chicago, Lori Murphy, a VHA Innovation Ecosystem Fellow and a Senior Social Worker at Central Ohio VA Healthcare System, shared with the more than 700 attendees that innovation is not created in board rooms or just at leadership levels. Instead, frontline VA staff see inefficient processes and ask, “Why can’t we do it like this?”
During her iEX Talk, titled “Agitation of Ideas,” Murphy, LISW-S, said innovation comes from agitation when a process is not working as efficiently as it can. “That agitation sometimes leads to an agitation of ideas- that agitating tap in the back of your head saying, ‘Why not try this?’”
Murphy said her call to action for everyone in the audience was to listen to that agitation. “Because that is how innovation is created and that is how we can transform health care.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
