Editors’ Note

Jordan Harmon has spent his career in a variety of roles spanning consulting, operations, process improvement, population health, value, strategy, and innovation. He is currently Chief Commercialization Officer for the HSS Innovation Institute. His focus is on creating new ways to enhance experience, effectiveness and value of patient care in the fields of digital, analytics, delivery and payment of healthcare services. Harmon is also Director at Costs of Care Inc., a global NGO that curates insights from clinicians to help delivery systems provide better care at lower cost. He currently serves as a mentor for Digital Health CT, an accelerator focused on the convergence of digital technologies within the healthcare sector to improve efficiency and make healthcare delivery more precise. He was most recently Vice President of Strategy at CityMD and Summit Medical Group, where he focused on population health and value. Harmon holds a BA in business administration from Mount Union College and an MHA from The Ohio State University. He also holds a Six Sigma Green Belt from the University of Michigan.

Will you provide an overview of your role and areas of focus?

As Chief Innovation and Commerciali-zation Officer at HSS, the role affords me an opportunity to lead the HSS Innovation Institute with my partner, Dr. Michael Ast, Chief Medical Innovation Officer at HSS. HSS has an innovative team of clinicians and staff that have developed a culture of innovation over several decades. The HSS Innovation Institute partners with HSS leaders in life science, medical device, and care delivery innovation to further our mission of sharing our knowledge and expertise with the world. Our goal is to not only improve the care at HSS, but help others throughout the world take better care of their patients through novel innovation and partnerships.

Will you discuss HSS’ commitment to innovation and how innovation is embedded in HSS’ culture?

Innovation at HSS has been at the root of the culture and teams for nearly 160 years. In 1969, HSS surgeons and biomechanical engineers developed the first modern knee implant and later performed the first total condylar knee implant surgery. So, the commitment to innovation has been part of the culture and lifeblood of HSS. Innovation continues to enable advances in surgical devices, techniques, and new ways to address disease at HSS through our teams of researchers, clinicians and biomechanics. HSS performs the highest volume of joint replacement surgeries in the world with the best outcomes, which allows us to innovate at a greater pace due to our focus and precision. The Innovation Institute helps enable these innovators throughout the institution to expand our reach through these new inventions and collaborations.

Where are some of the areas where innovation is taking place at HSS?

Across HSS, there continues to be extraordinary collaboration and focus on being the best that has allowed us to be at the forefront of innovation today. A few years ago, we partnered with an Italian-based medical device company, LimaCorporate, to develop the first design and additive manufacturing (AM) 3D printing facility for custom complex implants on a hospital campus. We are now able to custom print implants for patients when needed, allowing HSS surgeons to custom fit these implants in unique circumstances. We have also been at the forefront of next-generation wearable technologies to test, develop and utilize these for clinical care. Our partnership with Teslasuit, a U.K.-based company offering a full-body haptic feedback and motion capture suit, will allow our rehab teams to develop and utilize this technology for improving mobility following surgery no matter where patients may be. Finally, our scientists have been at the forefront of new discoveries in autoimmune disease therapeutics creating new ways to treat lupus, scleroderma, and rheumatoid arthritis through novel technologies which have now been launched into commercial ventures.

Will you highlight your efforts to create new ways to enhance experience, effectiveness, and value of patient care in the fields of digital, analytics and delivery of healthcare services?

HSS is dedicated to enhancing our patient care through innovation and innovative technologies. One of those solutions has been the adoption of wearable technology and incorporation of HSS care pathways into those solutions to support patients no matter where they are. Our clinical teams have utilized this data in coordination with traditional outcomes data such as patient reported outcomes to better understand how patients recover from surgery, prevent injuries, or even move throughout their day. We also launched the first in kind Innovation Center for AI Robotic in Joint Replacement with our partner Zimmer Biomet. This unique collaboration will allow HSS surgeons and Zimmer Biomet teams to develop tools to help guide surgeons using the robot for surgery to enhance care. It will utilize predictive modeling and machine learning from thousands of data points to improve surgical outcomes for surgeons and patients around the world. The Center will be at the forefront of this new way of combining data, robotics and clinician insights and will capitalize on our surgeon expertise and knowledge to help improve patient outcomes no matter what the location.

How do you engage HSS’ workforce in the efforts of the HSS Innovation Institute?

The staff and clinical teams at HSS are the reason innovation has been successful in the past and is the reason we continue that success into the future. Our partnership with our surgeons, clinicians, and researchers has been a true commitment to collaboration and culture of innovation. Many of the best ideas and partnerships come from clinical teams inside HSS because of their pursuit of continuous improvement. We have found unique ways to engage and support these new innovations in all areas of the organization which allows us to have a far greater reach than doing it alone. Innovation is driven throughout departments at HSS, rather than only through the Innovation Institute. That unique engagement is what makes HSS a great place for innovators and allows them to be part of the continuous strive to push the boundaries of what is possible. For any organization, the team and culture are the reasons innovation succeeds and creates deep impact in the industry.