Why Cedars-Sinai is becoming a digital health venture builder

WHAT IS THE DIGITAL INNOVATION PLATFORM?

Cedars-Sinai's Digital Innovation Platform has three components: the venture builder model, the entrepreneurship program and the data platform.

Nabet described the venture builder model as an end-to-end engine, starting at the idea for a digital health solution, followed by market assessments, bringing in a founder and funding the company, and ultimately, building the solution and implementing it at Cedars-Sinai and other health systems.

"What we're really focused on is actually being able to build the solutions that we know will solve our problems from a health system perspective," he said.

The next component, the enterprise entrepreneurship program, aims to foster a culture of innovation within the organization.

So those three components -- the venture builder, the entrepreneurship program and the data platform -- are really ultimately trying to come together to really transform our business through digital innovation.

"[We want to] help establish innovation as a muscle in each organizational unit or department," Nabet said. "The same way that performance improvement is core to everything that every team does here at Cedar-Sinai."

The program will operate like a "mini-MBA," he added, teaching clinicians and administrative staff to identify, validate and develop innovation opportunities that will help feed the venture builder model.

The data platform component will focus on building a data infrastructure to support the life cycle of a company.

Data is critical to every step in the digital health development process, Nabet emphasized. For instance, when identifying the market opportunity for any solution, it is essential to understand the patients impacted by the issue the solution aims to address. In the development phase, data is necessary to build the software models and algorithms that underpin the technology. Then, in the validation and deployment phase, developers need safe sandbox environments and access to synthetic data. And finally, the refinement of the solution requires additional training data and validation support.

"So those three components -- the venture builder, the entrepreneurship program and the data platform -- are really ultimately trying to come together to really transform our business through digital innovation," Nabet said.

WHAT PROBLEMS WILL THE PLATFORM AIM TO FIX?

The health system has singled out four areas, the first of which is specialty care access and extension. Nabet explained that this area could benefit from virtual-first tools that can cut wait times and expand convenient access to patients outside healthcare facilities.

Personalized medicine is the second key area. Combining data from various sources, such as genomics and wearables, could help enhance diagnostics and decision aids to personalize and individualize care.

It's about establishing an "end-of-one experience" for patients, Nabet explained.

The third area is hospital workflow intelligence. According to Nabet, integrating tools like AI-driven copilots into EMRs that can automate documentation can help support patient throughput in inpatient units. These types of tools could cut administrative burdens and free up clinicians to focus on patient care.

Finally, the Digital Innovation Platform will focus on solutions that can boost patient-provider-payer coordination.

"So, thinking about how we remove that friction and billing authorizations and [improve] that cross-stakeholder communication that is really challenging at times, and [how it] can be ultimately a better experience to enable that care delivery," said Nabet.

Nabet shared that the organization sought perspectives from market leaders, health system clinicians and administrators to determine the new initiative's focus areas.

HEALTH IT ACCELERATORS VERSUS DIGITAL HEALTH VENTURE BUILDING

Rapid advancements in healthcare technology are shaping the digital healthcare landscape, which means new models of digital health development are required to navigate the landscape.

According to Nabet, finding a digital health solution that matches an organization's unique needs is challenging despite the glut of options in the market.  

"We get pitched every day -- this solution that's going to solve all of your problems," he said. "But I think, more often than not, those solutions are baked for a different context. They're maybe dealing with a different provider entity. And for us, as an academic medical center, we have very different needs."

Thus, building solutions alongside digital health technology developers makes sense for Cedars-Sinai.

There are many organizational structures to facilitate health system-developer partnerships. One model is already established at Cedars-Sinai: the digital health accelerator. 

The nine-year-old accelerator welcomed its 10th class last year. The class comprised 10 companies, offering a wide range of solutions, from AI-powered tools to remote patient monitoring devices. Each received an investment of $100,000 and opportunities to network with Cedars-Sinai clinicians and executives.

However, the accelerator allows Cedars-Sinai to connect with established companies rather than create a new entity from scratch.

"We knew we had the accelerator model, but that's ultimately taking a later-stage company that's really looking for product market fit or is looking for mentorship or entry into our context," Nabet explained.

The Digital Innovation Platform allows Cedars-Sinai to help shape digital health solutions from the beginning, aligning them with its and other health systems' needs. Nabet underscored that the new initiative relies on identifying key healthcare problems, examining the market to see if a solution exists, and then deciding to build and scale a new solution.

Cedars-Sinai leaders also realized they would need a partner in this venture-building endeavor. Leaders selected Redesign Health because of the company's extensive experience in this arena.

"They've built over 65 companies in the last six years, and so they understand the space well," Nabet noted. "Also as we've learned in a lot of discussions with them, and now in this research process with them, they've iterated on their model. They've learned from their pitfalls, learned from their mistakes, and I think we are just as excited to have their successes and their excellent people, but also the people who've gone through those other missteps, helping us accelerate our efforts."

Redesign Health is working closely with Cedars-Sinai on various venture-building processes, from identifying and prioritizing the pain points that need to be addressed to sourcing founders and other management team members for the new company.

These types of partnerships represent the natural progression of the market, according to Nabet. For years, digital health companies first tried to work with payers or gain employer-based contracts, but now, they are increasingly being spun out of health system venture arms or built with health system input.

"I think for health systems, we have the clinical expertise, we have the data to actually build the models," he said. "We're actually connected to the delivery of care. And I think that has tremendous value for these companies."

Alignment between digital health developers and health systems can provide more targeted solutions, helping providers cut through the overwhelming number of options.

"We'll end up with interesting solutions that not only can advance the business model innovation side of it, but also the care model innovation side of it as well," Nabet said.

Anuja Vaidya has covered the healthcare industry since 2012. She currently covers the virtual healthcare landscape, including telehealth, remote patient monitoring and digital therapeutics.