Ryan Cameron, hospital vice president of technology and innovation, says healthcare understands empathy, but consumers can expand, but empathy is problematic. Putting these two together can mean big things.
The concept, which has been used in the gaming industry for decades, helps pediatric surgeons understand exactly what they do before picking up a scalpel.
It's happening in Nebraska for kids. In a partnership with Insight Surgery, the 231-bed Omaha-based Children's Hospital will develop a 3D-based, individual surgical plan and amputation guide to enable clinicians to see how each step of the surgical procedure is performed. The first use case allowed orthopedic oncology surgeons to perform complex sarcoma surgery of the tibial tuberos and patellar tendons, including allografts.
“It's really perfect,” says Ryan Cameron, EDD at CHCIO, vice president of technology and innovation at the hospital. ”
Children's Nebraska is one of the first hospitals in the country to have an FDA-approved 3D printing and manufacturing facility on campus. Cameron says the technique allows clinicians to practice complex surgeries and even improve outcomes significantly. Doctors can reduce surgery time and size by becoming more accurate, reducing trauma and speeding up recovery times, and provide visual guidance to parents and caregivers when explaining the procedure.
“That's much better than saying, 'Hey, I'm going to take Mesal, and we're going to take care of it,'” says Cameron.
Take a non-traditional approach to innovation
Cameron says this type of “thinking outside the box” is very necessary in healthcare. Clinicians look at what they work in another industry (e.g. games, games) and try to apply it to the biggest problem.
“As before, technology was highly entertainment-focused, it's highly gaming-focused for consumerism, and now it's more accessible, affordable and more constantly,” he says. “We use the exact same headset that we use to play video games, and surgeons can employ ultra-high resolution CTS to save 8 hours of surgery. And they can reduce multiple surgeries by creating preoperative planning.”
Vice President of Technology & Innovation at Ryan Cameron, EDD, CHCIO, CHD-E, Children's Nebraska. Photo courtesy of Nebraska, a child.
In pediatric care, this type of innovation is often more of a necessity than luxury, Cameron adds.
“The biggest surprise in pediatrics is the lack of investment and innovation,” he says. “Around 22% of the US patient population needs pediatric care. But looking at the venture capital investment and the number of medical startups happening, less than 2% are in pediatrics.”
(Read more: If you can't reach the doctor, the doctor will come to you.)
“In pediatrics, by default, everything (and innovation) must be personalized and accurate,” he adds. While adult-friendly hospitals and health systems have the advantage of being able to choose from a very large healthcare innovation technology market, pediatric hospital health executives must adopt new ideas and technologies and design them specifically for their needs.
For example, Cameron says his staff has a radiologist. “It's like a gearhead. He likes to fix things himself. A cardiologist steps into his office and asks him to make something for one of his patients.
Cameron sees a lot of possibilities with 3D printers, especially as the industry is heading towards bioprinting. Ideas limited to science fiction can help children in need of transplants, bone and burn reconstruction, and other serious health issues someday
“You're thinking about a lot of things that bioprinting is opening the door to a whole new era of healthcare,” he says excitedly. “It's a deep concept that actually partially printing organs and tissues can save lives.”
“Let's say you can take a part of the bones of your legs and move it over your face and you can do a face reconstruction,” he continues. “The fact that it's possible even now is that it's happening now, and it's right in front of us, and it's just amazing because they really need it (children).”
“We're opening the door to all possibilities,” adds Cameron.
Looking for cutting edge healthcare ideas? Try CES
That means looking behind some pretty interesting doors. Cameron, a former self-proclaimed “Silicon Valley Pirate” and vice president of AI company strategy and innovation, says he was deliberately hired by the health system in 2022 to “shake things up.” He wants to make things and sees a very large workbench in front of him.
(Read more: Let's take a look at the “future of health” for CES 2025.
Each January, Cameron dispatches members of his staff to CES in Las Vegas, sponsored by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). The healthcare industry has long been interested in consumer-oriented technology and strategies, sending people transformative and innovative in the hope that more health systems will find clinical connections with concepts like wearables, smart homes (and cars), games, and more.
Cameron says he sees more possibilities than any of the other more traditional healthcare events.
“We go to healthcare conferences and hear exactly what we expect to hear. Here's the problem (and) how our peers are working on them, but we haven't heard about a lot of big moonshots,” he says. “We don't see anything novel that can be applied to the healthcare sector.”
“So, if you set that horizon much higher, look at higher education, look at the consumer market, see all of it, get a little wilder, look at the kids' museums, the theme parks, the gaming industry, the entertainment industry,” he adds. “These are where rapid technology adoption is happening and you find something that really appeals to us.”
“This year, last year and the previous year, we left CES and at least one technology really had a big impact,” says Cameron.
latest? A printer that can print holographic communications and skin-safe tattoos. Theme park uses them to print cartoon characters on children's arms. Imagine how it can be used to make your children feel more comfortable in the hospital, or even helping them and their parents understand how they are being treated.
“The possibilities for healthcare are endless,” he says.
Challenge: Balance between empathy and consumerism
Cameron says that all health care (not just children's hospitals) requires that they embrace this strategy to move forward when transformation is essential.
“Look at the unexpected place,” he says. “Collaboration across industries is essential. Healthcare needs to talk to other industries and vice versa. It's really good, exciting innovation. It never happens in a vacuum. Diversity of thought, diversity of science and engineering, and things happening.”
Consumerism understands scale but not empathy, Cameron points out, while healthcare understands empathy, but scale is problematic.
“And if you're talking those wonderful hearts in the same room, if you can scale with empathy,” he says. “Then you revolutionize the way you take care of humans.”
What is Cameron's advice for other innovation and transformation executives in healthcare? Stop setting the bar low. Raise the horizon.
“The hospitals that employ outside of the core healthcare sector have been successful in increasing their ability to bootstrap innovation themselves,” he says, noting the strong growth of innovation labs and centers and incubators. “They've become a little more brave in terms of thinking about IP and monetization, thinking like a startup, thinking more agile and faster.”
“Big Tech is trying to find ways to communicate healthcare cheaply and make a lot of it,” adds Cameron. “And we are trying to find ways to provide healthcare on a massive scale with incredible empathy and high quality. One of us is going to win. I'm betting on me.”
Eric Wickland is Associate Content Manager and Senior Editor for Health Leader Innovation.
