From www.forbes.com
By Larry Myler, contributor
A past article about innovation in the healthcare industry focused on The Innovation Institute and its new model for partnering to bring more medical devices and software applications to market. This article, the second in a series on healthcare innovation, explores the role that grant programs play in healthcare innovation.
As with most innovation activities, money is the key to making things happen. This is perhaps more true in the healthcare space than most other sectors. When we understand the enormity of the need for constant improvement in healthcare, it’s easy to see how the scope has become so large. Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), as an example, has 400 open, active clinical trials running, as of this writing. Grant money for these research projects comes from a variety of sources at the state and national level.
Brent Dethlefs, Executive Director Research Institute at CHOC, reveals the goals of R&D at CHOC. “We are experiencing breakthroughs in cell-based therapies and precision medicine at an unprecedented rate because of our research. This is made possible through our partnerships with funding entities like pharmaceutical and medical device companies, as well as government agencies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).”
In addition to helping develop new therapies, researchers like Dethlefs and his team become thought leaders in their industry by writing and publishing research papers. This practice not only documents their research findings, it also establishes organizations like CHOC as prime recipients of future grant monies.
Phil Cola, VP Research at University Hospitals in Cleveland Ohio, in partnership with Case Western Reserve University, oversees approximately 2,000 grant projects with total funding of more than $300M. “One of the benefits of such a high level of research is that University Hospitals is able to better serve patients as the leader in many treatment areas. Our ‘physician-scientists’ have developed hundreds of protocols that other hospitals simple can’t provide.” According to Cola, this commitment to research also makes it easier to recruit top medical talent, and helps UH gain and retain greater market share in significant areas of expertise. Cola and his team take seriously their mission to, “responsibly grow research and scientific innovation for the benefit of patient care.” Remove grant funding from the equation and much of healthcare innovation currently being produced would dry up.
Grant funding has created its own ecosystem that falls outside standard healthcare management. Professional grant writers, grant management software providers, and project administrators all have an opportunity to contribute to the innovation process. Jim Wrenn, CEO of grant management company IT-Works Inc., explains why grants have their own peculiarities and strict procedures. “Accounting for grant dollars—how they are allocated, what personnel are spending what amount of time on each project, how reports are generated and used, etc.—is quite different from the normal accounting practices within a given organization.” Wrenn would caution anyone in the grant-funded research business to understand that there are meticulous requirements for tracking and reporting. Here are a few things to watch out for, according to Wrenn: Grant accounting begins when the research project begins, and ends when the project ends. It is not tied to the fiscal or calendar year of the researching organization.
- Grant funding generally must be spent down to zero by the end of the grant term. This requires accurate planning and execution.
- Reporting requirements will be different with each grant and must be complied with exactly.
- Researchers often try to use existing organizational accounting software to track grant deployments, but soon find it is better to use an accounting system specifically designed for grant management—one that interfaces with the organization’s accounting program.
- Like a CRM, any grant management system must be able to manage multiple research projects at one time, completely independent of each other.
If you run a health system (or a company in any industry), and want to improve patient (customer) outcomes, increase market share, build thought leadership and expertise, and more easily recruit top talent, maybe you should consider taking advantage of grant funding to expand your research and development goals.
