Federal Innovation Hubs Can Jump-Start Healthcare Technology Adoption

The following is a guest article by Tim Small, Managing Director, and Laura Baker, Senior Manager at Deloitte

Every day, technology is advancing at the speed of light. The adoption rates for the latest and greatest health tech innovations, on the other hand, are moving at a much slower pace. So slow, it may be decades before the benefits of one of today’s new technologies make a measurable impact in healthcare.

In the early 2000’s, healthcare organizations began using electronic health records (EHRs). Today, nearly 20 years later, some doctors are still not fully utilizing the technology, reverting to hand-written care notes that others must transcribe. Provider hesitancy is one of the culprits, as well as ongoing concerns over privacy, safety, and the potential to disrupt the delicate balance of patient care.

We have an opportunity, especially in the era of AI, to flip the script. Emerging technologies have the potential to optimize efficiency, improve patient engagement, reduce the frequency of documentation errors, and help providers manage higher caseloads of patients. These new technologies represent a revolution in care delivery, and patient demand for them is only likely to grow.

As the industry grapples with these ongoing adoption challenges, federal health leaders have a unique opportunity to overcome obstacles through the establishment of human-centered innovation hubs.

Federally-sponsored innovation hubs can manage the scoring and evaluation of technology, usability, and interoperability while keeping end-users at the center of the design and development process. They can bring together researchers, technologists, and healthcare professionals to push the boundaries of what’s possible in medical technology. A complex field like healthcare can benefit immensely from this model, specifically in four key areas: 

Providing a Controlled Environment for Testing and Refinement

Innovation hubs provide a controlled environment where new healthcare technologies can be tested, refined, and validated in a “fail-safe” manner before broader deployment. While these types of hubs exist across various sectors, in healthcare they are limited to a few specialized areas, one of which is the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) model. ARPA-H promotes a culture of measured risk-taking and rapid innovation and aims to drive breakthroughs in biomedical and health research by funding high-risk, high-reward projects. With its dedicated funding infrastructure, ARPA-H enables researchers to boldly pursue groundbreaking projects, nurturing disruptive ideas from incubation to scale. By encouraging experimentation, ARPA-H significantly enhances the potential for developing novel technologies that go beyond traditional disease-specific treatments and ultimately transform healthcare outcomes. By replicating the approach of ARPA-H at a larger scale, innovation hubs can ensure emerging technologies are robust and ready for wider implementation.

Overcoming Clinician Hesitancy through Human-Centered Design 

Innovation hubs play a critical role in accelerating the adoption of emerging healthcare technologies by addressing barriers to clinician acceptance. A clinician-centered design approach—focused on making technology more intuitive, iterative, and responsive to their needs—can help healthcare organizations achieve widespread and rapid adoption of new tools. Clinician hesitancy is understandable when new technologies disrupt existing levels of comfort, security, safety, and quality, or require clinicians to take on responsibilities outside their established roles. Innovation hubs can bridge these gaps by prioritizing empathy, stakeholder feedback, and user-friendly design – creating technologies that clinicians trust and are more likely to embrace.

Fostering Multidisciplinary Collaboration

In a sector as high-touch and expansive as healthcare, it’s important for innovation hubs to bring together diverse stakeholders—clinicians, industry leaders, academics, and researchers—to solve complex healthcare challenges. While collaborations like these have existed for more specialized research, they have not yet been fully leveraged across the broader federal healthcare system. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning (OHIL) is one example. Through SimLEARN, a program for simulation in healthcare training, OHIL tests new technologies, such as AI ambient dictation, and integrates new tools like anesthesia equipment with the VHA’s electronic health records in a simulated environment. These efforts, in partnership with vendors and clinical leaders, incorporate clinician perspectives, thereby promoting adoption, patient safety, staff experience, and patient outcomes.

Promoting Equitable Innovation and Workforce Development 

Innovation hubs have a crucial role in promoting ongoing equitable innovation, ensuring new healthcare technologies do not exacerbate existing health inequities, but instead help bridge the digital healthcare divide. By developing technologies that specifically address inequities in healthcare access and outcomes, innovation hubs can ensure advancements benefit all populations, particularly those historically marginalized. Additionally, innovation hubs can serve as training grounds for the next generation of healthcare professionals, equipping them with the skills needed to leverage new technologies effectively and equitably. By integrating workforce development into their mission, these hubs can prepare a diverse pool of healthcare professionals who are ready to lead in an increasingly tech-driven industry, ensuring the innovations benefit everyone, rather than a select few.

As healthcare technology continues to rapidly advance, the establishment of innovation hubs can help the federal government effectively develop and implement healthcare innovation in a way that places end-users at the center, while also addressing ongoing challenges such as provider hesitancy and health equity. By investing in these hubs now, the federal government can ensure emerging healthcare technologies make meaningful impacts and are accessible, equitable, and widely embraced by clinicians and patients alike.

About Tim Small

Tim Small is a healthcare strategy and analytics Managing Director in Deloitte’s Federal Health practice. He has over 25 years of experience driving change and solving complex problems across the Military Health System (MHS) and Veterans Administration (VA). He specializes in leading high-profile, innovative strategy projects designed to help his clients achieve breakthrough performance in the areas of cost, healthcare delivery, and population health. Tim’s areas of interest and experience include, but are not limited to, immersive technologies (AR/VR), digital health, value-based reimbursement, Artificial Intelligence (AI), bio surveillance, population health, smart health, and wearables. His former clients include the MHS’ Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Innovation Officer, the Air Force Surgeon General, and the Veterans Health Administration’s (VHA) Innovation Ecosystem.

Tim has served as Deloitte’s lead for their Federal Health Human Experience Offering, Virtual Reality Support Services, and Healthcare Innovation Mission Play. Tim was also a member of Deloitte’s winning 2016 Conquering Cancer XPRIZE team.

Tim earned his BS in Health Administration from Ohio University, an MBA from Johns Hopkins, and is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

About Laura Baker

Laura Baker is a senior manager at Deloitte with over 15 years of experience in driving healthcare transformation for public sector clients. She specializes in the implementation of innovative digital health technologies, focusing on transforming service delivery models and extending patient care beyond the traditional confines of a hospital.