Innovation

Hundreds in Silicon Valley Turn Out for PAMF Innovation Event on Senior Health

April 30, 2012

Community, Developers, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Attend linkAges Launch

The  Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s (PAMF) David Druker Center for Health Systems Innovation  launched its linkAges™ Successful Aging Program with a community education and developer event on April 14 and 15, 2012. PAMF’s linkAges initiative is pioneering new ways to support seniors in the community to live a meaningful life and to age in place. When the Innovation Center invited the community to share its ideas on developing new ways to help seniors age successfully, the response was overwhelmingly positive. The event had a waiting list within days of the announcement, and more than 300 members and leaders in the community, high tech, government and developers attended the free event, which was hosted by PAMF and Health 2.0 at Silicon Valley’s Computer History Museum. The event was also carried live on Twitter via the #linkAges hashtag, with people participating virtually throughout theUnited States.

The three nationally recognized keynote speakers at the event were:

Dr. Paul Tang, PAMF’s chief innovation and technology officer, welcomed the group with an overview of the two–day event and an enthusiastic invitation for attendees to work together to “join the community in transforming senior health and well-being through disruptive innovation – be a part of it.” Next, he presented to the group on PAMF’s groundbreaking linkAges program, and he also gave an overview of the Innovation Center’s Successful Aging Developer Challenge.

Following Dr. Tang’s talk, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park took to the stage with an energetic discussion on unleashing the power of open data and innovation to improve health.

Eric Dishman, Intel Fellow and Chief Health Care Strategist, spoke on “Inventing Independence.” During his presentation, Dishman provided insight from Intel’s 20-year journey to find aging-in-place solutions. He also shared his personal health and caregiving story with the group.

View videos of the three keynote speakers here.

“We were extremely gratified by the public’s response,” said Dr. Tang.  “So many people talked to me about their stories and how the ideas behind our linkAges system resonate with them.  For a team that wakes up every day trying to re-invent what we do to help make our communities better, healthier places to live, this was music to our ears. We look forward to partnering with the community to bring the ideas to fruition.”

What Happened at the Developer Event?

Energized by a morning of stimulating talks, over 70 developers responded to the Innovation Center’s challenge: select an important problem to solve that is a barrier to successful aging, and demonstrate how indicative signals could be detected and acted upon to mitigate risks to a senior’s health and well-being and assist in maintaining a high quality of life.

At the end of the weekend, twenty teams pitched their creative solutions, covering the full spectrum of activity-based, physiologic and participatory (human) signals and sensors. Teams were highly multidisciplinary, running the gamut of user interaction and systems engineering developers, designers, gerontologists and businesspeople. As each team presented, a graphic facilitator rendered a real-time interpretation of their solution, providing immediate feedback on the idea and creating quite a buzz in the process.

 

Read about the winning teams and their solutions on the Innovation Center website.

What’s Next?

The weekend’s kickoff challenge prepared developers for the PAMF Innovation Center’s three-month linkAges Developer Challenge, sponsored in partnership with Health 2.0, and launching April 30. The winner of the three-month Developer Challenge will be invited to join the PAMF Innovation Center Accelerator, a six-month incubator designed to refine and integrate the winning solution into the linkAges ecosystem for rapid implementation within the PAMF community. To provide additional background and help developers prepare for the challenge, a briefing webinar is also planned for May 3.

The Developer Challenge will be an unprecedented opportunity for the winning team to demonstrate proof-of-concept of their solution in partnership with a nationally recognized health care provider, giving them a critical leg up on the path to potential commercialization.

For more information, please visit the Developer Challenge website, which will be updated with additional information throughout the Challenge.

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PAMF’s Innovation Center Challenges High Tech to Help Seniors Age Successfully

March 13, 2012

New linkAges program launches April 14 in Mountain View

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s (PAMF) David Druker Center for Health Systems Innovation is inviting the Silicon Valley community to combine its unique talents in developing new ways to help seniors age successfully.

“More than anywhere else in the country, Silicon Valley is perfectly positioned to apply innovative thinking to the universal challenges of aging,” according to Paul Tang, M.D., chief innovation and technology officer for PAMF. “We live in the heart of technological innovation and have a proud history of excellent health care and supportive community organizations. We can be a national model for how the community supports aging and living well.”

“Successful aging is about much more than health care,” Dr. Tang said. “It requires a supportive ecosystem of social connections and resources to assist in a variety of daily-living activities. We call this community ecosystem linkAges – linking across generations.  We believe it takes a village – a combination of caregivers and community social services working together with professional healthcare teams to create a partnership that supports a vibrant and fulfilling senior community.”

PAMF’s Innovation Center is launching linkAges with a kickoff community education and technology developer event April 14-15. Hosted by PAMF and Health 2.0 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, the event will consist of two sessions:

  • A morning community education event, Saturday, April 14, 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  • A developer kick-off event, afternoon of April 14, and all day Sunday, April 15

Members of the general public are invited to attend the community education workshop. Developers are invited to attend both events.

About the Community Education Event (open to the public and developers)

April 14, 8:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.

The morning community education event will feature three nationally recognized dynamic speakers:

  • Todd Park, United States Chief Technology Officer
  • Eric Dishman, Intel Fellow and Director of Health Innovation at Intel
  • Dr. Paul Tang, Chief Innovation and Technology Officer of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Both Park and Dishman will discuss the social and health challenges of aging and the tremendous opportunities to apply technology in disruptive, innovative ways to help seniors live vibrant and fulfilling lives – aging successfully.  Dr. Tang will describe PAMF’s linkAges successful aging initiative and PAMF’s role as a community health partner.

About the Developer Kick-off Event (open to developers only)

April 14, 1 – 6 p.m., and April 15, 8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Following the morning keynotes, developer teams from around the country will engage in ideation sessions (the afternoon of April 14 and all day on April 15), focusing on innovative solutions to address the challenges heard in the public symposium.  Top ideas will be awarded monetary prizes.

The Developer Kick-off Event will also lead into a related 3-month developer challenge, where the top prize will include an opportunity to participate in an accelerator program with the PAMF Innovation Center. Participants in the developer kick-off event will benefit from additional education and feedback that may facilitate their successful participation in the developer challenge.

Please visit the PAMF Innovation Center and Health 2.0 for additional information and updates, and register for the event.

Media Contacts

Cynthia Greaves
Public Affairs
greavec@pamf.org
650-934-8614

Erin Macartney
Public Affairs
macarte@pamf.org
650-691-6103

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Dr. Sharon Tapper Selected for New Innovation Advisors Program

January 3, 2012

Sharon Tapper, M.D., has been selected to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Innovation Advisors Program. The initiative, launched by the CMS Innovation Center in October 2011, will help health professionals deepen skills that will drive improvements to patient care and reduce costs. 

Dr. Tapper is one of 73 individuals from 27 states and the District of Columbia participating in the Innovation Advisors Program.  After an initial orientation phase, Innovation Advisors will work with the CMS Innovation Center to test new models of care delivery in their own organizations and communities.  They will also create partnerships to find new ideas that work and share them regionally and across the United States.

Funding for this initiative was made possible by the Affordable Care Act. 

Dr. Tapper brings considerable expertise to the advisory board. She has served as medical director of Hospice of Santa Cruz County (2003-2010), medical director and creator of the Palliative Care Program at Dominican CHW Hospital (2004-present), and vice chief of staff at Dominican CHW Hospital in Santa Cruz (2009-2011). She is currently the chief of staff for Dominican CHW Hospital. Additionally, Dr. Tapper is the regional director of Inpatient Palliative Care for Sutter Health’s Peninsula Coastal Region, and the medical director and creator of outpatient Palliative Care and Support Services for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. She earned her medical degree from the University of Maryland, and completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, Davis.  Dr. Tapper is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

 “There has been an incredible groundswell of interest in becoming an Innovation Advisor.  It’s clear that doctors, hospitals and health care providers are enthusiastic about implementing the Affordable Care Act and strengthening our health care system,” said CMS Acting Administrator Marilyn Tavenner. 

The 73 individuals were selected from 920 applications through a competitive process, and include clinicians, allied health professionals, health administrators and others.  By attending in-person meetings as well as remote sessions to expand their skills and applying what they learn, the Advisors will be able to deepen their knowledge in health care economics and finance, population health, systems analysis, and operations research.  

“We’re looking to these Innovation Advisors to be our partners—we want them to discover and generate new ideas that will work and help us bring them to every corner of the United States,” said CMS Innovation Center Director Rick Gilfillan, M.D. 

Among other duties, the advisors will be expected to support the Innovation Center in testing new models of care delivery, to form partnerships with local organizations to drive delivery system reform, and to improve their own health systems so their communities will have better health and better care at a lower cost.

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation will receive a stipend of up to $20,000, which will be used to support Dr. Tapper’s activities while serving as an Innovation Advisor. 

More information about the Innovation Advisors Program, including a fact sheet and a list of participants and their affiliated organizations.

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PAMF Joins Leading Health Care Groups in Pledge to Empower Patients with Secure Access to their Health Information

September 14, 2011

Paul Tang, M.D., vice president and chief innovation officer, Palo Alto Medical Foundation

The Palo Alto Medical Foundation is recognized as one of the earliest innovators of health information technology in the country.

On Monday, the Palo Alto Medical Foundation (PAMF) joined leading consumer and health care provider groups in Washington, D.C., in a pledge of commitment to help consumers understand the potential benefits of health information technology (health IT), and to empower consumers by making it easier for them to get secure access to their health information and engage more fully in their health.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) hosted the first-ever Consumer Health IT Summit in Washington, D.C. on September 12, 2011. At the Summit, consumers, providers, and the public and private sectors came together to discuss how best to empower consumers to be partners in their health and care through health IT.

[Read more…]

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