As a nationally respected health care executive and thought leader, Brian Gragnolati has learned how to look into the future of care. Innovation, he said, is everything.
“Health care is ripe for change,” he said.
But not just any change. Health care systems need to evolve and adjust their paths to care, Gragnolati said.
“The types of change that we’re used to dealing with has long been about the care we deliver and innovating around that,” he said. “What we’ve got to do is use technology and partnership in a different way to change the processes — because the current processes don’t work well for consumers, don’t work well for those who pay for health care — and certainly are maddening for providers.”
Atlantic Health’s commitment to advancement through innovation was on display Wednesday at the Park Avenue Club in Florham Park as an overflow crowd of founders and investors mixed with leaders from Atlantic Health.
There were presentations and panels for all, breakout sessions specific for some — and one-on-one meetings for more intimate discussions around health care innovations.
“The beauty of this is that we have investors here, scientists here, innovators here — and they’re all talking to providers of care, who understand that there’s got to be a better way,” Gragnolati said.
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Doug Hayes, the executive director of Atlantic Venture Studio and the overseer of the second annual event, couldn’t agree more.
“We didn’t want to be a health system that waited for innovation to occur outside our four walls and then go shopping for it,” he said. “We wanted to learn about it and engage with it, so we can provide the best care to our patients and support our doctors and nurses, who should have a role to play in helping to shape this part of the ecosystem.”
Hayes said the large number of Atlantic Health caregivers at the event was one of many aspects that made the Venture Summit unique.
“We think that people who have their hands closest to the patients and the problems should be helping to design and develop the best products to support those doing the work,” he said.
“When you’re talking about complex challenges with patients, new care models and data, you need a lot of the same brain power in the same room to solve them.”
Better care ultimately is what the Summit is about, Hayes said.
“We don’t want to be a startup. We don’t want to become a venture fund. But we want to work with an ecosystem of partners,” he said.
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Dr. Jeff Chang, the CEO and founder of RadAI — a service that aims to empower physicians with best-in-class AI radiology to save time, reduce burnout and improve patient care, has long been a fan of Atlantic Health.
“We work with a lot of different health systems across the country, but we’ve only partnered with a select few,” he said.
Chang, one of the country’s best-known radiologists and the youngest U.S. radiologist in history – he started medical school at NYU at age 16 — traveled from the West Coast to come to the event because he has been impressed by the innovative mindset at Atlantic Health.
“It’s their ability to continue to push forward on how to adopt new technologies,” he said.
Stephen Socolof, the longtime managing partner at Tech Council Ventures in New Jersey, also is impressed by Atlantic Health.
“The venture studio here has done a tremendous job of building this ecosystem, working with VCs and startups and helping guide them into developments that are really valuable to Atlantic Health,” he said. “There’s obviously great engagement and sponsorship from leadership and from people who are managing all the different aspects of the health care business.”
Socolof said Atlantic Health’s efforts mirror others in the state, helping New Jersey maintain its reputation for innovation — whether it’s RWJBarnabas Health, Hackensack Meridian Health, Cooper University Health Care or the New Jersey Innovation Institute at NJIT.
“It’s great to see everybody in the innovation system doing things involving health care,” he said.
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The event drew more than just founders and health care professionals.
Michael Avaltroni, president of nearby Fairleigh Dickinson University, was eager to learn how his institution could interact and collaborate with those in the room.
“We’re leaning very heavily into innovation, believing that the connection between our future as a health care-focused educational institution and the need to innovate and think about the future of health care delivery is a key to our future,” he said.
“We’re excited about being here because we want to learn — but we also want to contribute.”
Hayes certainly was happy to hear that.
“Our sole focus is on providing high quality care to a population at scale,” he said. “It’s not necessarily to run a successful venture studio.”
Atlantic Health, he said, wants to be involved in innovation.
“This event allows us to see a lot of things very quickly,” he said. “We’ve got over 140 companies in our portfolio. They are all building different technologies and solving different patient or provider challenges. This allows us to get smart on what’s out there, so that our folks can make better choices when they’re getting pitched all these different companies.
“One of the goals of this event is to increase the surface area of contact between our innovation ecosystem and portfolio and the clinical and business leaders of Atlantic Health. I think that’s a real testament to this room.”
