Third quarter MUSC innovator awards celebrate employees

Sponsored by the Office of Innovation, the “I am an MUSC Innovator” campaign is designed to raise awareness of the many forms that innovation can take, to inspire others and to publicly recognize individuals/teams that are making an impact. For additional information, contact Jesse Goodwin, Chief Innovation Officer.

B. DaNine Fleming, Ed.D., faculty director of training and intercultural education in the Department of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Problem —Creating a comprehensive learning and training curriculum that can meet our diverse enterprise on an individual level is one way that I continue to turn what some may define as pain into pleasure. I am keenly aware of the intent and the impact of this work, so I make a concerted effort to adjust and modify the curriculum, so it can represent the strategic goals and objectives of our evolving enterprise. It is my pleasure to serve the MUSC enterprise.

Impact —Creating the team skills/appreciating diversity and inclusion experience for first year students, working on innovative ways to relay some difficult concepts that include, but are not limited to: identifying and addressing unconscious bias, recognizing microaggressions in the classroom/workplace, and refining skills to effectively deal with difficult people,

Recognition —Willette Burnham–Williams, Ph.D.; Paula Sutton; Ronnie Chatterjee; Tamatha Psenka, M.D.; Lisa Montgomery; and David Cole, M.D., FACS

Sherine Chan, Ph.D., and C. James Chou, Ph.D., associate professors, Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences.

Problem —Routinely finding that many drugs on the market for neurological disease don’t work for many patients, in part because these drugs target the symptoms rather than the underlying causes.

Impact —We have discovered a new class of mitochondrial modulator compounds based on Vitamin K that improve mitochondrial health in multiple animal models of difficult to treat neurological diseases such as medication–resistant epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease and mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome.

Recognition —Small Business Technology Transfer and Small Business Innovation Research grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and the National Institutes of Health. Grants from the South Carolina Research Authority, South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Institute and the MUSC Foundation for Research Development.

Jeff Borckardt, Ph.D., assistant provost, Interprofessional Initiatives and director of the Division of BioBehavioral Medicine.

Problem —After developing the Sloppy Mountain Medical Center activity, there was a challenge in effectively marketing it and driving adoption.

Impact —We spawned the launch of a start–up company (Palmetto Innovative Education, LLC) that licenses the software from MUSC for sale and distribution to other institutions around the country. The software has already been implemented in large–scale team–building events at over six academic medical institutions, professional organizations, and universities.

Recognition —Dusti Annan–Coultas, Ed.D., and Mary Mauldin, Ed.D.

Brandon M. Welch, Ph.D., assistant professor, Center for Biomedical Informatics, Department of Public Health Informatics.

Problem —The industry was lacking several solutions for patient needs, including the ability for them to meet providers by video, the need for gathering family health history to assess hereditary cancer risk, the need for collecting clinical or research data directly from patients and, finally, the need for patients to receive reminders of things to do between appointments.

Impact —I developed Doxy.me, a telemedicine solution used by over 60,000 health care professionals to conduct over 5,000 telemedicine sessions per day. I developed ItRunsInMyFamily.com as an effective way to collect family cancer history and identify patients at risk for hereditary cancer. We launched Dokbot, a new chatbot platform focused on collecting patient–reported health data for clinical care or research. Finally, I am developing Adhere.ly to help mental health providers remind their patients to complete their assignments between session activities.

Recognition —Dylan Turner; Heath Morrison; Joshua Schiffman, M.D.; Caitlyn Allen; Jordon Ritchie; Brian Bunnell, Ph.D.; Doxy.me team; ItRunsInMyFamily team; Dokbot team; and Adhere.ly team

Ellen Debenham –R.N., director of Business Development, MUSC Center for Telehealth.

Problem —Prior to the development of the South Carolina telestroke networks, less than 40% of the state’s population lived within a 60–minute drive time from expert stroke care. Now, greater than 96% of the state’s population has access to this time–sensitive treatment.

Impact —Today, we have 28 providers in our call pool covering over 35 locations. These providers respond within 5 minutes and exceed national time benchmarks for stroke treatment. We expect to perform over 7,000 telestroke consults in South Carolina this year. We also offer a scheduled in–patient neuro consult service to enable rural hospitals to treat and keep patients locally.

Recognition —Robert J. Adams, M.D., for his vision and mentorship and Christine Holmstedt, D.O., for her leadership and dedication to growing the program and improving access to care and outcomes for the citizens of South Carolina. I also want to acknowledge all of the providers, the MUSC Admit Transfer Center staff and especially the telehealth nurse coordinators, who make it all happen 24/7/365.

Please save the date for Innovation Week 2020 to be held May 4–8, 2020.