Many health systems acknowledge that partnering with digital healthcare startups is a necessary step toward innovation, but if providers do not tend these partnerships carefully, they will not be able to reap their benefits.
At the Becker's Hospital Review 4th Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle Conference Sept. 21 in Chicago, Rasu Shrestha, MD, chief innovation officer of Pittsburgh-based UPMC, and Santosh Mohan, head of athenahealth's More Disruption Please Labs, shared insights on t how health systems can embrace innovation through effective partnerships with digital health startups.
Though many health system leaders recognize the importance of entering into pilot programs with digital health startups and dedicate generous resources to these efforts, unrealistic demands for startups to generate outcomes and show an impact on revenue often lead providers not to adopt pilots.
"Why, by and large, are these pilots not landing? Many are never scaled beyond that initial pilot, and startups and investors are calling this death by pilot," said Mr. Mohan. "Some say that piloting with a health system is like being dragged in the middle of the ocean and being abandoned there. Long sales cycles and no destination make them suicide missions for startups that do not have the sufficient margins. They can often result in poor relationships for both the startups and the health systems."
A fundamental schism between the ways health systems and startups operate can contribute to the low success rate for pilots, Dr. Shrestha said, but he argued that an honest alignment of goals can help ensure both parties benefit from the partnership.
"Startups are in a hurry, but healthcare is not. Partners have to have shared values and a shared sense of urgency. If you're able to align those things you’ll be good," Dr. Shrestha said. "At UPMC, we look at it from a clinical validation standpoint, and encourage co-development between health systems and innovators to develop applications that align with internal stakeholder needs and vision of success. It’s an iterative model, and you’ve got to be in it for the long haul. You’ve got to constantly call out failures, not be afraid to call it quits, and move on if you’re seeing things that aren’t working."