Innovation, Kaiser's Garfield Center, YourNurseIsOn.com & Human-Centered Design

On August 3, 2010 excitement, enthusiasm and anticipation descended upon Kaiser Permanente’s Sidney R. Garfield Innovation Center in San Leandro, California cleverly disguised as an early morning group of healthcare innovators and leaders. As our invitations read, our group had assembled:

“At the Sidney R. Garfield Innovation Center (Directed by the awesome Jennifer Liebermann), Kaiser Permanente's patients, doctors, nurses, architects and engineers use elements of human-centered design to improve and to innovate physical spaces, technologies and clinical operations in a unique, “movie-set” warehouse. Many of our innovations have been spread throughout Kaiser Permanente as well as to organizations nationally and internationally.”

YourNurseIsOn.com CEO Matthew Browning, RN, and approximately fifty other healthcare leaders, attended the inaugural Innovation Workshop for non-Kaiser employees. Entitled “Innovation and Improvement in Process, Space and Planning” the innovation workshop featured Human-Centered Design principles and explored Kaiser’s methodology for finding and fostering innovation in healthcare. These principles were taught to workshop participants during an intensive “two-day inaugural session that introduces our unique methodology and prototyping capabilities at the Garfield Center led by Kaiser Permanente innovators from our own Innovation Consultancy, Innovation and Advanced Technology and National Facilities departments.” The workshop was further explained as “during this highly interactive session, participants will focus on improving medication safety as a case study and actively prototype new spaces, technologies and processes that improve medication safety.” 

I am happy to say it exceeded my high expectations and proved to be a highly informative, very educational and unquestionably valuable workshop for all of the participants.

Highlights of the program included:

•Experiencing first-hand how Kaiser understands their users’ needs and then ideates and prototypes new processes, spaces and technologies

•Learning how we can engage end-users (patients, doctors and nurses) and how they can impact the successful spread and sustainability of innovation

•Understanding how we can learn from failure and embrace it as part of our culture 

•Learning how to build your own Innovation Center and process

•Collaborating with other like-minded innovators on real world cases

Through expert instruction, example and interaction we were able to achieve the following learning objectives:

•Understanding of human-centered design & collaboration as powerful tools for innovation

  •Extrapolating case study learnings to real world problems 

•Understanding of different innovation centers and their similarities and differences

Participants were engaged in learning exercises to: identify potential areas for innovation; practice brainstorming techniques to capture possibilities, learn how to group, rank and rate ideas; act out, or “bodystorm’ ideas to clarify utility; and, finally, utilize processes to encourage the adoption  or “spread” of an innovation. These ideas are summed up in the phrase “storming, forming and norming,” and are incredibly effective in facilitating a “fail quickly and cheaply” mindset that is essential to innovation prototyping. Acting out of scenarios using a new idea, product or processes should occur in “low-fidelity” mode to save time, money and effort in the beginning. “Low-fidelity” includes using items like chairs, cardboard and other inexpensive, readily available props to “simulate” the innovation. Using real life humans (our teams) to act out these scenarios in our hastily created low-fidelity simulations allowed us to quickly examine an ideas feasibility and decide to refine it or reject it immediately, or to “fail fast.”  This was an invaluable exercise and allows an organization to quickly and easily decide where it may best use its limited resources.

Everything about this workshop was world-class. We had a diverse group of widely respected professionals as facilitators, teachers, speakers and participants. The Garfield Innovation Center is exemplary setting for an innovative space that is effective and efficient. Extraordinary efforts were taken to ensure a successful program as evidenced by the smooth registration process, the convenient lodging, the delicious catering, the excellent networking event and the obvious preparation of the instructors, facilitators and collateral. Discussions about an “Advanced Innovation Workshop” and a LinkedIn community where innovators and Garfield Center “graduates” could remain in contact and contribute occurred and may lead to amazing things from incredible connected community. 

As a leading healthcare innovation technology company, YourNurseIsOn.com was pleased to attend and participate in Kaiser’s inaugural innovation workshop and looks forward to working with progressive innovators from around the world. We anticipate Kaiser’s continued success in the fostering of innovation and await word of the LinkedIn group and Advanced Programs so we can continue to be involved. We would also like to thank the attendees at this workshop for sharing your wisdom, knowledge and experiences with us all- without you all, it would have been just another seminar...

And finally, a big THANK YOU to the tireless Kaiser crew at the Garfield Innovation Center, Collective Invention’s consultants, KP’s Innovation Consultancy Group, KP’s Innovation & Advanced Technology Group and KP’s National Facilities Group. Individual recognition must be given to Jennifer Liebermann, Christi Zuber, Chris McCarthy, Deanna Konrath, Sherry Fry, W. Scott Heisler and Kent Yoshiwara from Kaiser’s various groups and to Collective Invention’s Erika Gregory, Fiona Hovenden and Arnold Wasserman. Individually you are all awesome and as a group “You ROCK!!.” 


Thank you to all of you for sharing your wisdom, your experiences, your teaching, your friendship and your time.

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