Digital Health Innovation Hub Updates

Partnering to Scale Nurse-Led Innovation

As we begin the new year, I’m excited to highlight how the University of Washington School of Nursing Office for Nursing Research and Innovation is building partnerships to scale nurse-led innovations into solutions that create a tangible impact on patient care. One project exemplifying this vision is our recent STTR proposal, which leverages collaboration between the School of Nursing, the Digital Health Innovation Hub, our UW School of Nursing Simulation Center, and our industry partner Crimson Medical Solutions.

The project focuses on the IV Manager, a patented tool from Crimson Medical Solutions designed to enhance safety in IV line management by reducing medication errors, particularly in critical care settings. This solution addresses a pressing issue for multiple patient populations and specifically for geriatric populations, where age-related changes and polypharmacy increase vulnerability to adverse drug events. By improving IV labeling and organization, the IV Manager has the potential to significantly enhance patient safety without disrupting nursing workflows.

Our Simulation Center plays a pivotal role in advancing this innovation. In a high-fidelity simulated critical care environment, ICU nurses will evaluate the IV Manager’s effectiveness in reducing errors and its impact on workflows. This collaboration exemplifies the value of harnessing the school’s cutting-edge resources to refine innovations before clinical scale up, ensuring they are both evidence-based and practical.

At the Digital Health Innovation Hub, we envision partnerships like these—blending nursing expertise, simulation technology, and business development—as the future of healthcare innovation. By collaborating with the Simulation Center and industry partners, we aim to turn transformative ideas into scalable solutions that improve care delivery across communities. I invite our nursing community to think about how we can expand these efforts, exploring new opportunities to work across disciplines and sectors. Together, we can drive meaningful change in healthcare, translating nurse-led innovation into real-world impact.