Innovation sometimes turns into an exercise in frustration, as good intentions are hampered by harsh realities including failed strategies, the lack of industry collaboration or public policies that simply don’t mesh with real-world needs. To make innovation more plausible for all involved, leaders at Lenovo Health realized that they needed to address the issue head on by bringing together trailblazing leaders from all walks of healthcare. So, they created the HIThinkTank, a dynamic group of health industry leaders dedicated to leveraging their collective wisdom in an effort to share best practices and positively affect public policy.

Co-hosted by Lenovo Health, Justin Barnes Advisors, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center – Center for Connected Medicine (UPMC-CCM), Inventiv Health and HIMSS Media, the group’s inaugural event, The Health Innovation Think Tank: A Collaboration of Global Health Industry Thought Leaders, brought together some 50 healthcare thought leaders from all types of leading care delivery systems and health IT vendor organizations to examine issues associated with the adoption of innovations in categories such as value-based care, connected health and virtual care. The one-day symposium was moderated by Justin Barnes, director of Justin Barnes Advisors and host of This Just In Radio Show.

“This is an opportunity for collaboration, sharing strategy and finding best practices for all of us to be successful. We want to make sure we are doing everything we can – as citizens, as leaders – to solve the world’s biggest healthcare problems,” Barnes said. “Today is about looking for great innovations or even gaps in innovation. How can we collaborate and what problems can we solve? We are here to begin the conversation.”

To that end, the meeting was structured as a “think-tank,” with industry “catalysts” introducing topics and all of the participants engaging in discussions and sharing real-world best practices.

Tom Foley, director, global health solution strategy at Lenovo, pointed out that the idea for the group grew out of the desire of a number of industry leaders to not only learn from one another but to pull together in the name of positive change.

“Health IT innovation is often inhibited by policy/regulations and a lack of payer reimbursement. To change the delivery of care and to embrace a patient-centered delivery system this needs to change,” Foley said. To address this change, he encouraged members of the group to key in on how they collectively can “help innovate this market and support where the puck is going in regards to value-based care, connected health and virtual care.”

Indeed, to truly affect positive change, Jamie Skipper, policy advisor and former senior ONC scientist, Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT, pointed out that the members of the group should concentrate on putting themselves “in the shoes of the patient” – especially as they explore potential policy change recommendations.

The one-day event was just a start for the burgeoning coalition of thought leaders who gathered at Lenovo headquarters in Durham, N.C. The group, in fact, intends to keep conversations about innovation, policy and strategy front and center through additional collaborations among this current coalition and also through future meetings with new invitees, visits with Congress and the White House and certainly through social media – #HIThinkTank on Twitter.

“We really want to get the conversation out there by creating a new voice centered on the acceleration of innovative solutions to progress the transforming delivery of care model,” Foley said, while pointing out that one of the goals of HIThinkTank group is to take its collective voice to the public policy front. “What is working? Are there gaps? What policies/regulations need to be addressed to advance real change? We want to bring those issues, on behalf of HIThinkTank participants, back up to Capitol Hill.”