Tampa General Hospital recently held its inaugural TGH Innovation Week and TGH Ventures Summit, which was meant to highlight advancements in health care and foster collaboration within the industry.
Rachel Feinman, vice president of innovation at TGH and managing director of TGH Ventures, said as an internal event, the bulk of the week — which ran from Sept. 9 to 13 — was meant to support team members and clinicians.
“It was centered around this broad notion of innovation and how everyone throughout the system is and can be an innovator,” Feinman said. “Building on those partnerships and those relationships with the end goal, in mind of driving better patient care, that was the ultimate goal.”
From hands-on workshops to a hackathon, the event saw employees tackle real-world challenges and contribute to transformative solutions across the organization, culminating in a competitive pitch event at the end.
Feinman said the impetus of the weeklong event was the need for a place to help team members feel inspired about innovation already occurring throughout the system.
“[It was the] TGH Venture Summit that brought together our internal leaders and teams, along with external partners that we work with on the venture side,” Feinman said.
Feinman called the summit an “event within an event.” The summit showcased innovative solutions from early-stage companies, an investor outlook and a deep dive into TGH’s strategy for external partners in the audience, who heard directly from TGH CEO John Couris and other executive vice presidents. Couris was recently named one of the area’s Most Admired CEOs.
“As a health system practicing true academic medicine, innovation is inherently woven into the cultural fabric of who we are as an organization,” Couris said in a statement. “Bringing Innovation Week to our team is our way of driving home the idea that innovation is a collective practice, and innovation can come from and be driven by anyone, regardless of where you sit within the organization, and that we should all be empowered to explore ideas that can make health care better for the communities we serve.”
Over the next year, the momentum Innovation Week created will be built into the organization’s fabric, according to Feinman.
“One of the things I’m most excited about is that we realized that Innovation Week is much more than one big, explosive week,” Feinman said. “It can also be things that we take throughout the year and continue to grow and build on. That’s exciting to think about.”
