Producing Anesthesiologist-Innovators We have also seen this in our own department as, unsurprisingly, an avalanche of COVID-specific device and delivery solutions were born from the extreme, novel, and emergent healthcare problems that came with 2020. With this wave of innovation came the realization that our department had a very undefined support network for physician ideas, even though Pittsburgh contains a trove of academic and nonacademic innovation accelerators. A colleague and I experienced this firsthand after designing a COVIDsafe airway device; we struggled hard to self-learn the innovation process, patent law, device development, funding options, FDA navigation, and marketing basics. Harvard Business Review has recently recognized the challenge of engaging physicians in healthcare innovation and the race to tackle this issue on a national stage, such as the American Medical Association’s Physician Innovation Network forum8. Despite this, many well-documented barriers to physician-led innovation remain largely unaddressed: a lack of expertise in innovation fundamentals, increasing clinical demand, lack of funding, and lack of institutional support8,9,10. Outside of self-directed learning, which requires non-clinical time and often tuition costs, there is a lack of formal entrepreneurial or innovation education available in traditional clinical training. There do exist very robust physician-driven innovation programs, though they are institutionally specific and are difficult to replicate as many require additional year(s) of residency, a fellowship, or prior education (such as a PhD or engineering degree) as a part of their design.
By S. Zach Frabitore, MD We Need Innovators Innovation is a fundamental aspect of medicine, especially in the field of anesthesiology. At the national level, the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health recently emphasized the need for innovation within perioperative medicine, leading to a collaboration with the Society for Technology in Anesthesia at the 2020 American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting1,2. Between the recent pandemic and anesthesiology’s regard as “... one of the most transformative medical specialties with regard to patient safety3”, the perioperative environment is ripe with opportunity to innovate. We have experienced this increased interest in our own department, sparking discussions during program review and education committee meetings regarding innovation support for the increasing number of interested residents. A targeted needs assessment survey distributed to our faculty and residents confirmed widespread discomfort with engaging the innovation process and overwhelming support for increasing innovation resources for our physicians. Defining The Problem Despite innovation interest, few physicians engage in entrepreneurship despite a significant need for clinical input, which is a contributing factor to the billions of investment dollars lost on failed medical innovations yearly4,5,6. In fact, a 2008 study found that “physician patents were more highly cited by subsequent patents than nonphysician patents and had higher generality scores representing the breadth of the invention7”.
Designing a Solution In 2018 the UPMC anesthesiology department debuted a resident-designed Innovation Immersion Experience (IIE) elective, during which CA-3 residents spent a non-clinical month progressing through a free online entrepreneurship course coupled with innovation-passionate faculty mentorship. It was designed to directly and effectively address the four main barriers to innovation, while acting as a successful pilot for innovation education integration into our residency department. Three residents participated from 2018-2020. Outcome data strongly showed achievement of curricular goals with feedback centering on the need for program expansion, design/ law/marketing resource support, and departmental continued on page 16
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The Pennsylvania Society of Anesthesiologists Newsletter |
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