UCLA Health is providing seed grants, prizes and support to select proposals aimed at improving medical care as part of a new effort called the UCLA Health Innovation Challenge.
The challenge allows faculty, staff, trainees, patients, caregivers, volunteers, and UCLA students to submit ideas for health and wellness solutions applicable to care both at and beyond UCLA Health, such as medical devices, information technology and initiatives aimed at improving the patient and staff experience.
"We're launching the UCLA Health Innovation Challenge to reward and scale the innovative efforts of our faculty, staff and scholars, and also those ideas that come from patients and caregivers, who are at the heart of our mission," said Desert Horse-Grant, senior director for research and innovation at UCLA Health. "Biomedical and clinical innovation starts at the ground level. Advancements at UCLA affect care all around the world."
Proposals can be submitted to one or more of the following categories:
- Medical Technology/Digital Health, for seed funding to winning technology proposals submitted by UCLA campus employees, trainees and students.
- IT Support for Care Efficiency, which provides support from the IT team for a winning idea to optimize care, submitted by clinically related staff and employees at UCLA Health.
- Patient Experience (CICARE), for rewarding and scaling winning patient experience initiatives submitted by faculty, staff, trainees, patients, caregivers, volunteers and others in the UCLA community.
- Performance Improvement, for supporting winning performance improvement initiatives submitted by faculty, staff, trainees and their team members.
- Greatest Idea, for awards and leadership endorsement for winning ideas submitted by faculty, staff, trainees, patients, caregivers and volunteers to enhance operations and patient experience at UCLA Health.
"This challenge harnesses our greatest asset: the dedicated faculty, clinicians, staff, students and contributors whose work defines the future of health care," said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health, CEO of UCLA Hospital System, and associate vice chancellor of UCLA Health Sciences. "We're proud to support the creative solutions and new ideas that solve the health needs of today and tomorrow."
The UCLA Health Innovation Challenge is the latest effort in the organization’s long-standing history of investing in leading health care solutions.
"UCLA Health and the David Geffen School of Medicine have always served as incubators for the brightest minds in health care," said Kelsey Martin, MD, PhD, dean of the medical school. "We're thrilled to empower our thinkers and doers to take their plans and put them into action."
The deadline to submit proposals to the UCLA Health Innovation Challenge is May 1, 2019. To learn more or submit an idea, visit uclahealth.org/innovation/innovation-challenge.
