This week, I reviewed your submissions for the HCI Innovators Award. It was a very humbling experience.
You sent in short overviews of your hospital projects, including staffing, budget and results. And as I sat there reading them, they came to life—and gave me pause.
Hospital projects are not some abstract idea on paper. They are people, doing the good work that hospital folks do. And as I read them, I was there with you: Sitting in the preliminary meetings, volunteering to be on the team, waiting for the project approvals, working with the design teams, seeing test results roll in, and going on the floors to listen to the users. And then, hopefully, reading about the success in the hospital newsletter or even here in HCI. Each and everyone project reminded me how all hospital innovation comes from teamwork, and I couldn’t help thinking about all the real hours of your life that went into making these projects real.
It was very hard to narrow the list down to ten finalists. In my book, you are all winners.This week, during Christmas and New Years, I’m thinking about those of you who are on call, who are assigned as administrator on duty, or are the exec whose presence is required in Peds for the Christmas Day photo op. It’s what makes this different from any other job in the world.
You work for a hospital. You’re already a winner.
