Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE IMPLEMENTATION IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • Sign Up Free
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Digital Health
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Unwell in America
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Events & Awards
    • Awards
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
      • - Leaders to Watch
    • Women in Healthcare
      • - Luminaries
      • - Top 25 Women Leaders
      • - Women to Watch
    • Digital Health Transformation Summit
    • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Digital Health
    • - Future of Staffing
    • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
  • Multimedia
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • Data Center
    • Data Center Home
    • Hospital Financials
    • Staffing & Compensation
    • Quality & Safety
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Data Archive
    • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
    • Surveys
    • Data Points
  • MORE+
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Technology
August 02, 2022 05:00 AM

Q&A with Myra Davis of Texas Children's Hospital: ‘Innovation is everyone’s responsibility’

Jessica Kim Cohen
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print
    Myra Davis

    Myra Davis, chief information innovation officer at Texas Children’s Hospital, discusses how her team tackles change by collaborating with other leaders within the health system.

    In 2019, you added “innovation” to your title of chief information officer. Before that, you served as vice president of information services. How did the additional innovation piece get added to your responsibilities?

    It was really not “Myra’s thinking” whatsoever. It was just the thinking and brilliance of our CEO and president, Mark Wallace. Along with his executive team, he recognized and appreciated how we have leveraged not only the functionality of our electronic medical record, but (its) integration into other solutions, and the advancement … the organization (has made) when it comes to leveraging data. It was really his intuition that birthed the additional “I” in my title.

    At the onset of that introduction of my title, it was really important for me to work with the organization to define what innovation means in our organization. At the end of that exercise, it was very apparent that innovation is everyone’s responsibility. Just because I had the word in my title did not mean I was the only person to think innovatively in our organization. The other part of it is that, at the root of the word innovation, it means, really, to change. For me, it became a matter of: How do I partner with our executive team to ensure that we are leveraging technology to change operating practices, to change and enhance how we care for our patients, and to change how we care for our workforce?

    I love the way you defined innovation as change, whether it’s with regard to clinical care, the workforce or something else. What teams do you lead at Texas Children’s as part of that work?

    I have an innovation team. Their role is to partner with the organization—because innovation is everyone’s responsibility—on: What are the opportunities we have? What problems are others at the organization trying to solve? And, more importantly, do we have the assets in our portfolio to solve those problems?

    They are also looking at possibilities to partner with outside companies to create products, or even enhance existing products, leveraging Texas Children’s data. We have a rich data source, and we know that it’s attractive to many startups or existing companies.

    They also work internally with the rest of the technical teams so that (the innovation team is) abreast of upcoming advancements in technologies that we own, and to explore what opportunities they could solve.

    In addition, they partner closely with our executives and clinical leaders through an innovation advisory group. We meet periodically to understand what opportunities we have. It’s one team, but it’s one team that works with many existing teams.

    How do you go about recruiting staff for the innovation team? What kind of skill sets are you looking for?

    They don’t need a technical background. They need more of an inquisitive-nature background—the ability to ask questions, influence and really work from the lens of a startup. Not everything is defined. We’re looking to them to go out and just seek opportunities and not be afraid to meet people. So, a lot of courage. We have some really talented individuals on that team who are skilled at doing that. They’ve been great partners to the rest of the information services team, as well as the organization.

    “(Team members) need more of an inquisitivenature background—
    the ability to ask questions, influence and really work from the lens of a startup.”

    You mentioned that the innovation team will also work with others in the health system to figure out what their pain points are and what problems they’re working on. How does that process work?

    A really good example, recently—and we’re still in the exploration phase of it—is we were aware that our pathology department was looking at some opportunities to explore digital pathology. The innovation team went out and talked to the pathology department about what the opportunities looked like, and then we partnered with a third-party cloud solution vendor.

    Because they’re not technical, the team is not going to be inclined to try to (develop a) solution. They’re really inclined to try to solve the problem that they’re hearing about, by marrying the opportunity to the technology solutions that exist.

    We’ve also been leveraging robotic processing automation. The technology has been around for quite some time, but looking at opportunities to create efficiencies and operating models afforded us a chance to partner with our clinical and operational leaders and introduce the technology in partnership with opportunities they may have. It affords us a chance to introduce some technology solutions and think through how we could create changes, whether it’s in practice visits or in operating models, and create some efficiencies. Again, the technology has been out there, but introducing it in partnership with operational practices has afforded us an opportunity to create change.

    Download Modern Healthcare’s app to stay informed when industry news breaks.

    You’ve talked about partnering with third parties and outside startups. What does the vetting process for that look like, especially if you’re sharing patient data?

    We actually have an onboarding process. So, before we engage directly with any vendor, we work very closely with our information security, legal and contracting departments. Those are three key critical partners for us to ensure that we are protecting our information. That’s some pretty significant due diligence that we take before exploring any partnerships externally.

    What support do innovation-focused executives like yourself need from the CEO and other C-level executives to really be able to pursue innovation projects?

    Let’s not just isolate that word “innovation.” There’s a lot of smart people in many organizations, and everyone’s innovative, because they’re all thinking about: How do I make a change in my organization? How do I make a change leveraging certain technologies? You as a leader—whether you’re a CIO or not a CIO—you’re trying to drive certain degrees of change. Marrying your opportunities to the potential technical solutions that your organization may or may not have is really what I would encourage everyone to consider as a path to take.

    Related Article
    The Check Up: Myra Davis of Texas Children's Hospital
    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    IBM Quantum System One at Cleveland Clinic_4_0.jpg
    Cleveland Clinic, IBM unveil quantum computer
    Dr. Alice Zheng
    Women's digital health sector poised for growth, venture capitalist predicts
    Most Popular
    1
    More healthcare organizations at risk of credit default, Moody's says
    2
    Centene fills out senior executive team with new president, COO
    3
    SCAN, CareOregon plan to merge into the HealthRight Group
    4
    Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan unveils big push that lets physicians take on risk, reap rewards
    5
    Bright Health weighs reverse stock split as delisting looms
    Sponsored Content
    Health IT Strategist (HITS) Newsletter: Sign up for the latest IT and medical technology news delivered 3 days a week (M, W, F).
     
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2023. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Digital Health
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Unwell in America
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Events & Awards
      • Awards
        • Nominate/Eligibility
        • 100 Most Influential People
        • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
        • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
        • Excellence in Governance
        • Health Care Hall of Fame
        • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
        • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
        • Top 25 Innovators
        • Diversity in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
          • - Leaders to Watch
        • Women in Healthcare
          • - Luminaries
          • - Top 25 Women Leaders
          • - Women to Watch
      • Conferences
        • Digital Health Transformation Summit
        • ESG: The Implementation Imperative Summit
        • Leadership Symposium
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
      • Galas
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Digital Health
        • - Future of Staffing
        • - Hospital of the Future (Fall)
      • Webinars
    • Multimedia
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • Data Center
      • Data Center Home
      • Hospital Financials
      • Staffing & Compensation
      • Quality & Safety
      • Mergers & Acquisitions
      • Data Archive
      • Resource Guide: By the Numbers
      • Surveys
      • Data Points
    • MORE+
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing