An innovation program is helping nurses and frontline workers at Main Line Health improve their work and bring new medical inventions to market, writes Nicole Leonard for WHYY.
The invented devices help with catheter insertions, prevent injuries from falls, and support limbs for rehab patients.
Main Line Health is partnering with the Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, Lankenau Ventures, and other firms to create devices that improve delivery of care.
They may not be the flashiest inventions, but health care workers say these simple everyday solutions can go a long way in making the experience better for patients and providers.
Utilizing practicing health care workers means they have insight into the problems facing providers and patients, said Barbara Wadsworth, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Main Line Health.
“The fact that we can give them the opportunity to bring their ideas forward and then actually get to a full invention, it’s a super cool thing,” Wadsworth said.
“I did not know I was an inventor,” Wadsworth said and laughed. “But if we can keep patients safe, that’s what we’re going to do.”
Read more about the patient care problems facing providers and the inventions solving those problems at WHYY.
