The 2017 Healthcare Informatics Innovator Awards: At the Dawn of a New Era, Winning Teams Show the Way to the Future

For decades now, industry experts and observers have been predicting the dawn of a new era in U.S. healthcare—one that would usher in true transformational change in how care is delivered, managed, and paid for. And for decades, that dawn of that new era was described as “about to happen.” Well, that new dawn clearly has arrived.

Every day now, the leaders of one or another patient care organization are coming up with brilliant solutions to age-old problems, as they leave behind established ways of doing things and find new paths forward. And on the vendor side, technology solution providers are continuing to help their clients shine in three critical categories: enhancing clinician workflow, exchanging data, and cutting down costs.

That new examples of innovation are springing up every day now is not in doubt. But sometimes, these great case studies can get lost amid the noise of activity. Here at Healthcare Informatics, we are dedicated to bringing forward stories of transformational change. For this year’s Innovator Awards Program, we have recognized four winning teams and nine semifinalists on the provider side; and four winning teams and one runner-up on the vendor side.

The leaders of those patient care and vendor solution provider organizations offer everyone in U.S. healthcare a glimpse of the future, through their groundbreaking work across many areas. Please join us in congratulating all of these teams; we are honored and privileged to be able to share with you, our readers, throughout the next few weeks, these stories of accomplishment and innovation, with the hopes that many in the industry will be inspired to replicate—and perhaps even improve on—their laudable achievements.

--The Editors of Healthcare Informatics

2017 Award-Winning Teams: Healthcare Providers

• First-Place:
  Allina Health (Minneapolis, MN)

• Co-Second-Place:
  Mercy Health (Cincinnati, OH)
   
• Co-Second-Place:
  Mercy Health System (St. Louis, MO)
   
• Third-Place:
  East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (Boston, MA)
   
• Semifinalists:
  Association of Ontario Health Centres (Toronto, ON, Canada)
  Bridging Access to Care (Brooklyn, NY)
  CHI Franciscan Health (Denver, CO)
  CHOC Children’s (Orange, CA)
  Geisinger Health System (Danville, PA)
  Lakeland Health (St. Joseph, MI)
  Texas Children's Hospital (Houston, TX)
  University of California Davis Health System (Sacramento, CA)
  UF Health Jacksonville (Jacksonville, FL)

2017 Award-Winning Teams: Vendors

• Clinician Workflow
  Co-Winner: Avizia (Reston, VA)
  Co-Winner: Skywriter MD (Westminster, CO)
  Runner-Up: healthfinch (Madison, WI)
   
• Interoperability
  Pulsara (Bozeman, MN)
   
• Cost Savings
  analyticsMD (Silicon Valley, CA)