Clinician Innovator: A Novel Career Path in Academic Medicine

T he practice of medicine is transforming substantially and a pivotal driver of this change has been the accelerating pace of technology innovation. Traditional healthcare innovation has focused on the development of new diagnostics, drugs, and devices for use in hospitals and clinics, with more recent expansion to include quality-improvement and costcontainment efforts. The explosion of digital health technologies, centered around smartphones and connected devices, and enabled by advanced low-cost, miniaturized electronics, presents significant opportunities for clinicians, researchers, and healthcare administrators. This is coinciding with the rapid growth of personal and population “big data”—from genome to physiome—that can help us diagnose and treat illness more effectively and efficiently, including in heart disease and stroke care. As these advances in healthcare accelerate, academic medical centers should play an active role in collaborating with industry in championing innovation, including implementation of technology-enabled healthcare solutions. More than ever before, innovators in academic medicine need to be trained and appropriately supported in their career path to meet the needs of a changing, and challenging, healthcare system. The American Heart Association (AHA) recently convened clinicians, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs at the first Heart Tech Forum in Austin, Texas to inspire and increase collaboration and innovation toward AHA’s 2020 goal of reducing heart disease and stroke. A key component of the meeting was discussion and promotion of career development in this rapidly emerging area. Academic medicine has always been a significant contributor to innovation, with the advances in basic research providing the foundation of healthcare innovation. However, as we continue to witness unprecedented change in technology and health care, there is a need for academic medicine to promote, educate, and support trainees for a career at the convergence of basic and translational research, healthcare delivery and implementation science, and emerging digital health technologies. The growing number of digital health tools and other novel forms of technology require new training paradigms and thinking to understand their appropriate place and value in clinical practice. Additionally, young trainees and faculty are needed in this area and may require career paths that incorporate new analytical or technological tools, including connected devices, behavior change, and social media.