Nurses Bring Added Value to the Innovation Space

In collaboration with the American Nurses Association and BD, HIMSS hosted the third annual NursePitch™, a Pre-Seed and Series A competition at the HIMSS21 Global Health Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas.

NursePitch is designed to increase the voice, opportunity and visibility of the nursing audience in the digital health ecosystem by advancing nurse-led and nurse-developed innovation.

Nurses are central to patient care environments, creatively solving problems and offering unique solutions. Nurse-led innovation is essential for optimizing workflow and should be encouraged and supported by health systems, product suppliers and academic settings. Nurses bring added value to the innovation space through their consistent focus on patient safety and quality while maintaining a high standard of care.

The judges for this year’s pitch event represent decades of experience in clinical informatics, IT initiatives and nursing innovation. Oriana Beaudet, DNP, RN, PHN, is Vice President of Nursing Innovation for ANA Enterprise, where her top priority is to support and empower nurses working at the bedside and others who want to participate in, design and lead healthcare innovation. Gretchen Brown MSN, RN, NEA-BC, is the Associate Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at Stanford Health Care, where she manages inpatient nursing care and clinical technology and IT initiatives. Joyce Sensmeier MS, RN-BC, FHIMSS, FAAN, is Senior Advisor, Informatics at HIMSS, where she provides thought leadership in the areas of clinical informatics, interoperability and standards programs and initiatives.

HIMSS established a selection committee, which considered the following criteria when virtually evaluating the applications during Round 1.

• Whether the proposed solution is viable from a technical and market perspective
• Whether the assembled team has the requisite skills and experience to contribute to the success of the project
• The degree to which the solution has an impact on improved healthcare

Finalists moved forward to the live, on-site Round 2, where they were allotted 15 minutes to pitch their solutions. The team of judges evaluated each finalist on the criteria of competiveness of the solution, potential growth of the product, strength of the pitch and overall application.

HIMSS is pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 NursePitch event.

The first-place winner and recipient of an $8,500 scholarship was awarded to BabyLiveAdvice, a company led by founder and CEO, Sigalit Marmorstein, MSN, PHN, FNP. BabyLiveAdvice is a social enterprise that supports pregnant mothers and parents from preconception to early childhood using telehealth, phone, chat and group classes. The solution has demonstrated results in reducing costly complications caused by maternal-infant morbidity and mortality.

In second place and the recipient of a $2,500 scholarship was Ready.Sim.Go, founded by Dr. Carol Rosenberg ND, DNP to improve patient/caregiver education through simulation. In third place, an e-Platform to Support Social Justice in Nursing created by Jodi Traver, PhD, RN, NE-BC, and Ayelet Ruppin-Pham RN, MN PHNA-BC, was awarded a $1,500 scholarship.

In addition to the scholarships, the recipients will benefit from additional engagement opportunities such as mentorships with innovation incubators/accelerators and recognition across HIMSS vehicles such as an invitation to present to HIMSS Nursing Informatics Community, and invitations to author an article for OJNI (Online Journal of Informatics) and Computers Informatics Nursing - ANI Connections.

Empowering nurse-led innovation is crucial to the future of healthcare. To learn more about ongoing efforts to advance innovation in nursing, please join us on HIMSS digital platform: Accelerate.