Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT / Kolaleh Eskandanian, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Children's National Hospital

Transcript

Kolaleh Eskandanian, Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Children's National Hospital · Becker’s Healthcare Digital Health + Health IT

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  - Elevate your healthcare
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  - This is Laura Dedo with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
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  I'm thrilled today to be joined by Koala Eson,
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  vice President and Chief Innovation Officer
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  at Children's National Hospital.
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  K is a pleasure to have you on the podcast today.
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  It's great to be with you. Thank you so much, Laura.
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  Now I'm really looking forward to catching up
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  with you on some of the interesting
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  and exciting things you're doing at Children's National.
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  I know it's such a fascinating time right now in healthcare
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  and specifically when looking at children's healthcare,
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  you know, lots of opportunities
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  to really make a big difference for that patient population.
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  But before we dive into that discussion,
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  can you tell me a little bit more
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  about yourself and your background?
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  Uh, yes, absolutely.
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  Um, so, um, as you mentioned, I'm, uh, Ian.
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  I'm the Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at
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  Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC And, um,
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  a little bit about the hospital.
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  Uh, I would, I would like to mention that it's, uh,
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  ranked number five in the nation
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  by US News and World Report.
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  And, uh, most importantly in the context
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  of our conversation, uh, research
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  and innovation is one of the three pillars
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  of our strategic priorities.
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  Uh, the other two being, uh, clinical excellence
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  and community health.
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  And, uh, we receive more than 70% of our research
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  and innovation funding from federal agencies.
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  And the other 30% come from industry foundations
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  and, uh, internal resources.
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  And in my capacity as Chief Innovation Officer,
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  I manage Children's Nationals Innovation Ventures,
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  which is the, um, innovation
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  and commercialization arm of Children's National.
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  And I'm also the principal investigator
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  of an FDA funded initiative that Children's National has led
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  for the past 10 years.
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  And we were just renewed in September, 2023
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  to a $7.5 million grant, uh, to
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  continue lead this initiative for another five years.
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  And, um, under a new branding and all new partnerships.
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  Uh, so this initiative is now called the Alliance
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  for Pediatric Device Innovation.
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  And my background is in mechanical engineering with, uh,
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  follow on, uh, PhD and MBA degrees.
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  Uh, my experience all phases
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  of the total product lifecycle development, uh,
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  having worked at Intelsat and Accenture
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  before joining academia
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  and my own innovations, uh,
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  as an inventor are still in the market, having been licensed
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  to companies that are commercializing them.
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  Uh, my focus in the past 10 years, uh,
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  has been on building innovation programs, uh, dedicated
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  to FDA regulated pediatric medical products.
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  Well, that's a fascinating background
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  and certainly, you know, such an inspiring field
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  considering all the good that, you know, that type
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  of medical innovation can do for a pediatric population.
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  And from your perspective
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  and vantage point leading innovation at Children's National,
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  what are some of your top priorities right now?
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  What is really encompassing most of your time?
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  Yeah, thank you for that question.
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  And I'd like to answer this question in the context of, uh,
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  what, uh, innovation means in an academic pediatric health
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  system and what it takes to work in an underserved
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  and under invested, uh, small pediatric markets.
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  So with this in mind, our mission is to bring, uh, novelties
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  and discoveries to the patients
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  and families that we serve in our own hospital
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  system, uh, and everywhere.
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  And so at Children's National Innovation Ventures,
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  we are laser focused on FDA regulated pediatric
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  medical products.
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  So these are in the three categories of, uh, drug biologics,
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  uh, under the purview of FDA Center for
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  Drug Evaluation and Research
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  and Center for Biologics evaluation and Research.
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  Uh, the second is, uh, the category of devices
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  and diagnostics, uh, under the purview of FDA Center
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  for Devices and Radiological Health.
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  And then the third bucket is, um, digital therapeutics
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  to the extent that these products are regulated, uh, such
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  as software as a medical device
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  or, um, various, um, predictive analytics.
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  Um, and again, you know, under the oversight
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  of the FDA Center for Devices
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  and Radiological Health, uh, so this is our focus
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  because our resources are scarce, we want to make sure that,
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  you know, we tackle the products that are in dire need
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  for the patient population that we serve.
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  And so we are focused on regulated medical products.
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  And the way that we source
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  and scout innovation is through three buckets of
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  hospital-based innovation.
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  This is when we work with our clinicians, uh, to, um,
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  understand the problem statements.
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  But this is not necessarily, you know, asking the clinicians
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  to come up with a solution.
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  But together we, um, identify a problem statement
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  that is looking for a technological solution.
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  Uh, the second bucket is a research based innovation, uh,
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  discoveries that come out of our research labs.
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  And then the third is open and external innovation.
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  This is when, uh, we source and scout
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  and look for, uh, pediatric innovation, no matter
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  where they are within this context.
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  Our innovation program is largely, uh, sponsored
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  through external sources.
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  So, uh, to answer your question now directly about
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  priorities, you know, we wanna make sure
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  that our priorities are aligned with the priorities
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  of our sponsored, uh, and funded initiatives.
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  Um, and the FDA grant is a good example of that.
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  Uh, so these programs are all designed around the most dire
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  and challenging needs of the most vulnerable children
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  of all backgrounds who need novel medical, uh,
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  technologies, uh,
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  that were specifically studied in the patient population,
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  uh, as well as innovative medical products such as point
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  of care or at home devices that help with preventive care
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  to keep, to keep children away from the hospital.
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  Um, and you know, I, I will repeat this again, that,
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  you know, our laser focus is on medical products
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  that have been specifically studied
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  for use in the pediatric population.
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  Uh, you hear the phrase children are not small adults.
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  Uh, so we need solutions
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  that are specifically designed for children.
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  Uh, i, I can bring, you know, give you an example of,
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  you know, how we actually do that.
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  And that is, you know, through identifying a need
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  and doing needs assessment studies.
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  So on April 26th, we are hosting a symposium on the topic
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  of, uh, pediatric medical devices
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  for optimizing the heart brain continuum.
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  So, um, if you talk to any pediatric cardiac surgeon
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  or neurosurgeon, they will tell you
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  that non-invasive continuous monitoring systems is
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  what they need, and yet there is no solution in the market.
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  Uh, so on the 26th of April,
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  we are bringing together the WHO is who in this, uh, domain,
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  uh, from the government industry
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  and academia to get the discussion started.
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  Uh, we'll then use the proceedings from the symposium
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  to craft an RSP to solicit proposals for pediatric, uh,
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  medical devices for the perioperative care of patients
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  with congenital heart disease
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  and neurodevelopmental disorders.
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  The RFP will go out about two weeks after the symposium,
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  and, uh, we select finalists
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  to present live at our, uh, your medical device pitch,
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  uh, competition, make your medical device, uh, pitch
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  for kids competition on October 14th, uh, in Toronto.
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  And that will be part
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  of our 12th annual symposium on pediatric device innovation,
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  which is co-located with the, um,
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  large med tech conference powered by Ed.
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  Well, that's fascinating to hear,
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  and certainly a huge accomplishment in terms of thinking
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  through, you know, all those connected points
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  and how you can really innovate in the children's MedTech
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  space, um, to really make a big difference
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  for those patients that you're serving
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  on a consistent basis.
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  And you know, I, I can see that you've got a lot
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  of different, um, people that you're working with
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  and partnerships in the industry and the community, um,
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  and through the system at large.
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  When you think about innovation from your perspective and,
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  and just really, um, you know, how have you seen it grow
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  and evolve over the last year or two,
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  and then what are you expecting, um, over the next 12
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  to 24 months or so?
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  Uh, or what are you, I guess,
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  most excited about when you think about this, these types
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  of innovations and what's possible?
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  Yeah, uh, as you mentioned, you know,
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  partnership is really important to us.
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  Um, you know, uh, uh, we have a small team
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  of innovation at Children's National,
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  and we could not have done
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  what we have accomplished without, uh,
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  the power of partnerships.
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  Um, so in the next, um, you know, 12 months,
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  we are really focused on, um, working
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  with the small business
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  and startup communities even more, uh, closely on,
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  um, conducting a couple of, um, economic, um,
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  comparative effectiveness studies, uh, to help demonstrate
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  the value of innovation in a pediatric health system.
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  And that is, you know, to demonstrate, you know,
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  what innovation means, right?
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  Uh, to, um, create value through reduce, for example,
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  reducing the total cost of care for the hospitals, uh,
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  and make technologies available where patients are.
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  So that's why, you know, the point of care
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  and at home, um, technologies are so important, uh,
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  to keep children, um, being cared for
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  by their caregivers and, uh, families at home, um,
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  and reduce the necessity to come to it, um,
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  to the hospital and rather, you know, go
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  to their retail pharmacy, for example,
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  or, um, uh, use some at home devices for certain, um,
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  uh, monitoring and data collection, um, needs.
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  So that's, you know, that that's something that, you know,
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  we are actively working on.
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  And, uh, uh, you'll see, you know, some, uh,
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  success stories hopefully coming out in
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  the next 12, 18 months.
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  I'll definitely keep an eye out for that.
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  Thank you so much, Malala, for mentioning it and,
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  and really, you know, referencing
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  what I can imagine will be a, a great initiative
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  to see the results and then scale from there.
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  Before we wrap up our conversation,
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  could you talk about one change that you
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  and your team has made recently that yielded great results?
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  Oh, I, I think that, you know, uh, something that, uh,
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  we keep in mind continuously is, uh, to stay laser focused
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  and not get distracted by shiny objects.
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  And so that laser focus for us is really, um, uh, you know,
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  use the power of, uh, science
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  and technology, uh, to focus on
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  regulated medical products.
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  And so that is the focus of innovation, you know,
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  within our team.
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  Um, it's not a huge change,
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  but it's a, a constant reminder of, uh, you know,
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  if we don't stay focused, we are lost.
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  So, you know, as an example, you know, I can, uh, tell you
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  that, you know, by staying focused,
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  unregulated medical products, uh, you know,
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  in the past 10 plus years working
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  with the FDA on the pediatric device consortia
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  grant program, we assisted over 400 unique medical device
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  projects, over 40 startup companies.
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  And of them, uh, there are over 20, um, medical products
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  that were cleared or approved, uh, by the FDA, um,
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  or received C mark, uh, in Europe.
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  And of the companies that we assisted, eight
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  of them landed successful exits via acquisition.
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  Uh, so the key is, again, to stay focused
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  and be true to our mission, which is to serve children
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  and families, and these are the results.
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  I love it. Goa, thank you so much
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  for joining us on the podcast today.
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  This has been such a fun and interesting conversation,
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  and I look forward to connecting with you again soon.
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  Thank you, Laura.
• 13:46
  - Elevate your healthcare experience in 2024.
• 13:50
  Discover the driving forces, shaping the healthcare
• 13:52
  landscape with the NRC health experience perspective.
• 13:56
  Be the first to access the insights
• 13:58
  and trends in forming the future of healthcare.
• 14:01
  Register now to join the live national webcast
• 14:03
  and get first access to the report.
• 14:06
  Secure your spot@nrchealth.com.