EP255: UCHealth: A Short List of Hospital Innovations Rolled Out in 2019, With Richard Zane, MD, From UCHealth

In this episode, Stacey Richter talks with Richard Zane, MD, chief innovation officer at UCHealth, about a short list of hospital innovations rolled out in 2019.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

✅ How Dr. Zane and UCHealth define innovation, and the four algorithms behind their 2019 rollouts

✅ Why complete, high-quality data sets are the underlying dependency for every successful innovation

✅ Why collaboration with payers and PBMs on data sharing matters more than most people realize

✅ How evidence-based pathways and feedback loops work together to improve outcomes

✅ Dr. Zane's advice for digital health start-ups and innovators building tools for health systems

WHY THIS MATTERS

Richard Zane walks through three of UCHealth's most meaningful 2019 innovations and the challenges his team overcame to roll them out. A common thread runs through all three: none of them work without optimally complete data, which in turn depends on payers, PBMs, and even other providers being willing to share data. Zane is candid that failure is part of the process — "compassion without competence is crap" — and that innovation succeeds when everyone involved has real skin in the game toward the same outcome.

=== LINKS ===

🔗 Show Notes with all mentioned links: Episode Page

🔗 Healthcare Industry Acronyms and Terms

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00:00 Introduction.

03:06 What Dr. Zane is doing as the chief innovation officer at UCHealth.

03:36 How Dr. Zane and UCHealth define innovation.

04:06 Innovation needs within emergency medicine.

04:27 The innovation successes and accomplishments that UCHealth made in 2019.

06:13 The four algorithms UCHealth used in their innovations.

07:36 The "last mile" of innovation.

09:57 The three most meaningful things UCHealth did in 2019.

12:21 Evidence-based pathways, feedback loops, and how these two work together to improve health outcomes.

16:19 What Dr. Zane has learned through the trials of innovation.

17:06 "Failure's fine. It's absolutely fine to fail."

17:30 "It's not just budget; it's also bandwidth."

17:55 The clear pathway that Dr. Zane is looking to in innovation.

18:29 "We are about making better decisions in health care."

18:42 "The first thing we do is evaluate a problem."

20:04 Walking the balance between innovation and change management.

20:25 "Compassion without competence is crap."

21:25 The guiding principles UCHealth uses for innovation.

21:44 Dr. Zane's innovation approach.

23:16 Dr. Zane's advice for digital start-ups, digital therapeutics, and innovators creating digital tools.

26:51 "If we have the same type of skin in the game, we're gonna get to the same place."