Skunkworks
Health in Your Hands Team Members (left to right): Serena Eagland, Carly Pistawka, Laurel Radley, Yixin ‘Izzy’ Zhang, Rodrigo Batista, Courtney Symes, and Mark Elliot. Trina Montemurro is not shown above but is part of the Health in Your Hands Team. (photo provided by Providence Health Innovation)
Providence Health Innovation Research and Engagement, part of Providence Research’s Innovation arm, hosted Skunkworks: Hacking Chronic Disease in Vancouver, Canada on November 14-15. The fourth annual Skunkworks event, which built on previous innovation events focused on pain, wounds, and aging, offered participants an opportunity to collaborate and develop innovations that were informed by a team of researchers, healthcare professionals, caregivers, and patients. Participants heard speakers discuss problems related to chronic disease management from the perspectives of patients, staff, and caregivers, and were then able to join together to create teams that worked on a chosen issue. They then spent the remainder of the competition developing, testing, validating, and fine-tuning their solutions. The competition offered three awards: the Digital Trailblazer Award, the Health Disrupter Award, and the Patient Safety Technology Challenge Award. This year was the first time that the Patient Safety Technology Challenge (PSTC) sponsored an award, offering participants a chance to compete for a $5,000 cash prize. Health in Your Hands won the PSTC-sponsored prize for their patient safety solution, which centers on increasing medical literacy and empowering patients through eliminating medical jargon and communicating health information to patients in more meaningful ways. Health in Your Hands team members include Serena Eagland, Carly Pistawka, Laurel Radley, Yixin ‘Izzy’ Zhang, Rodrigo Batista, Courtney Symes, Mark Elliot, and Trina Montemurro.
As Carly Pistawka, a Health in Your Hands team member stated, the project was “inspired by the anxiety and miscommunication that comes out of the medical jargon that is not understood by patients.” Pistawka recalled an instance when her family member was unable to comprehend lab results, an experience that caused undue stress. Pistawka said, “we all have the experience of seeing lab results that are not easily understood [by the lay public] and were tailored to health professionals. Some of the information is not even relevant to the patient.” Driven by a desire to change this reality, she said their team aimed to create a channel of information directly to patients that can be easily understood. Pistawka added, “this can also help the patient determine what their next steps are - when to get their blood tested again, if they need to visit a doctor, or whether things are urgently needing attention.”
Laurel Radley, another Health in Your Hands team member, noted the importance of increasing health literacy and autonomy in health-related decisions. Radley said she “see[s] a great need for members of the public to be informed and for healthcare delivery to have shared decision-making at its core.” Radley’s team member, Courtney Symes, views patient safety as a top priority in her role as a practice consultant for medication safety and management. She believes Health in Your Hands “will empower patients to access their health information in a way that is accessible and appropriate.” The team seeks to build on their momentum from Skunkworks and looks forward to further advancing their innovation this year.
