Hosted by Wyss Core Faculty David R. Walt, PhD, Diagnostics Grand Rounds brings clinicians with unmet needs to the Wyss Institute. The goal of these sessions is to inform technology developers about important clinical problems that can help them direct their technology development efforts. Presenters are asked to identify diagnostic needs that will have an impact on the quality of care they deliver.
Dr. Sims is a cardiac anesthesiologist who practiced pediatric and cardiac anesthesia at Mass General Hospital (MGH) for ~25 years. Focused on patient safety, patient harm prevention, and caregiver excellence, he developed ~10 different “safety technologies” that were adopted and implemented at MGH. In most cases the innovations were conceived by multidisciplinary teams of engineers and front-line workforce, prototyped and implemented at MGH, then patented and licensed (in some case non-exclusively) to medical device manufacturers under a variety of joint ventures and other forms of academic industrial partnerships. Dr. Sims will recount a history of several of these innovations (and failures), with particular emphasis on motivation, process of achieving buy-in from senior leadership early on, nuances of managing confidentiality, IP, conflict of interest, and engagement with stakeholders, to build critical mass for success. Also discussed is the use of sophisticated tools (Open Evidence, and the like) to stress test and benchmark the merit and achievability of a new idea. Finally a discussion of current projects related to workforce-facing tools to maintain front line workforce engagement in an age of automation of workflows for dynamic, event-driven high acuity patient care.