HealthCare Business | Avera Health Joins The Innovation Institute

LA PALMA, Calif. — Today, The Innovation Institute, a pioneer in health care innovation, announced that Avera Health, one of the largest health care systems in the Midwest, joined The Institute to spark new initiatives in the health care delivery space. Avera is the fifth member in The Innovation Institute, joining Irvine, Calif.–based St. Joseph Health; Marriotsville, Md.-based Bon Secours Health System; Baton Rouge, La.-based Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System; and Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange, Calif.

“We believed that if innovation at Avera was to take off like it should, we needed a drastically different model to facilitate it. So, with The Innovation Institute, we now have an enhanced process to better nurture innovation and provide procedures for vetting, patenting, prototyping and selling innovative medical devices and health care-related discoveries invented by Avera employees and physicians,” said Fred Slunecka, Avera’s Chief Operating Officer. “The idea is to create the most innovative, efficient and optimal solutions for specific, real-world challenges faced by health care providers and patients. The Innovation Institute gives our employees and physicians expertise they need to develop bright ideas into real market products.” More…