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Building Innovation Capacity In A Learning Health System: The Innovation Cohort Experience, Jennifer Monti, Owen Sanderson

Journal of Maine Medical Center

Introduction: People with ideas about how to improve products and services often benefit from a structured process to test their ideas. The Innovation Cohort was developed to empower staff at MaineHealth to create solutions to unmet needs. This article describes the progress and perspectives gained over 3 years of the program.

Methods: The Innovation Cohort was loosely modeled on the National Science Foundation’s iCorp that emphasizes customer discovery and hypothesis testing early during development. Innovation Cohort applicants proposed a specific problem and answered 5 basic questions related to solving that problem. Selected participants shared readings and attended 5 in-person meetings …