Spring 2020
Innovating for mission impact
The Spring 2020 Cohort will participate in a 6 month immersive experience to develop innovation and research project proposals with high potential for healthcare impact (Phase I). Participants will work closely with a cross-disciplinary team of faculty mentors in a highly networked community of engineers, scientists, businesspeople, and clinicians. Using the Catalyst methodology for innovating for mission impact, participants work through a structured process to consider real-world needs, plausible solutions, and viable action plans to develop proposals that, if successful, will lead to a clear and specific benefit.
MIT linQ and the VA Health Care are partnering to solutions that improve patient outcomes by addressing high priority focus areas:
Access: How can technologies and processes support the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes? How do we ensure people gain the entry into the system they need? How can we work for underserved populations to deliver basic healthcare needs? How can we improve access to continuing care for people who are unable to make it to their closest hospital?
Safety: How do we anticipate, detect early enough, and respond to potential problems in order to prevent negative consequences? How can technologies and processes make it easier for caregivers to be efficient and effective?
Mental Health: How do we improve the quality of life for those who live with chronic mental health conditions? How do we prevent and improve outcomes for people with substance use disorder? How can we better detect, diagnose, mitigate, and prevent mental health issues such as PTSD, TBI, and suicide?
Cohort partners
Experience highlights


Nucleate original need-driven research and opportunities with high potential to achieve health impact and without the constraints of a single lab or organization


Process driven by Fellows. What Fellows teams develop in Phase 1 is just the beginning. Past teams have launched start-ups, established new lines of research, and embarked on new career trajectories.


Mentored by cross-disciplinary experts from academic research, industry, and clinical care


Selected projects progress to Phase II in which scaling and commercialization are explored.
The process this phase


Proof of Need
Identify, evaluate, and document unmet medical needs. Visit laboratories, talk with clinicians and explore the literature to create problem and need statements.


Proof of Opportunity
Identify and evaluate opportunities (need & solution idea). Work in teams for an in-depth analysis. Develop and document your opportunity.


Project Proposal
Develop a plan to launch a research project which outlines the milestones in a 12-18 month time frame. Present your project proposal (orally) to an Independent Advisory Panel.


Outcome
Portfolio of 1-4 validated research opportunities, with real opportunity to transition to Phase II—exploration of funding and commercialization opportunities.
Spring 2020 Fellows


Mercy Asiedu, PhD
Postdoctoral Fellow at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab


Lola Baird, LICSW
Senior Social Worker and Program Coordinator for the Polytrauma/Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, VA Boston Healthcare System


Vyda Bielkus
CEO Health Yoga Life, EMBA Candidate at MIT Sloan School of Management


Mark Drinkwater, MSN
Acute Care Nurse Practitioner at VA Boston Healthcare System in Emergency Services


Amy Hanson
Assistant Nurse Manager VA Boston Healthcare System


Natrina Johnson, PhD
Candidate in Health Services Research at Boston University School of Public Health, and researcher in the VA Boston Healthcare System


Nahun Kim
MS Candidate at MIT’s Integrated Design + Management


Jonathan Li
PhD Candidate in Computational & Systems Biology at MIT


Chelsey Solar, PhD
Fellow in Medical Informatics at VA Boston Healthcare System


Smrithi Sunil, PhD
Candidate in the Biomedical Engineering Department at Boston University


Eric Swart, MD
Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts


Christine Zhang
MBA Candidate MIT Sloan School of Management


Kai Zhang, PhD
Project Manager, QIAGENSpring 2020 Faculty


Pamela Bellino, MA, OTR/L
- Director of Patient Safety VA Boston Healthcare System
- Lean Healthcare Black Belt
- Faculty of the Medicine/Surgery/Psychiatry VA Chief Resident in Quality and Safety (CRQ&S) training program at VA Boston Healthcare System
- Faculty of the Ambulatory Patient Safety and Quality Improvement (QI) rotation BMC Medicine Resident Program at VA Boston Healthcare System


Lars Frølund, PhD
- Research Director, MIT Innovation Initiative
- Visiting Fellow at the MIT Sloan School of Management


Stephan Gaehde, MD, MPH
- Boston VA Medical Informatics Fellowship Program Director
- Boston VA Chief of Emergency Services


Dimitra Georganopoulou
- Venture Partner, FundRx
- Chief Business Officer, MyGenomeRx
- Director, Women in Bio
- Formerly with Baxter International


Martha Gray, PhD
- J. W. Kieckhefer Professor of Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Director, MIT linQ


Jacob Hooker, PhD
- Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport MGH Research Scholar
- Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
- Director of Radiochemistry, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging


Beth Kahn
- Associate Director, NE I-Corps
- NSF I-Corps Instructor


Timothy Padera, PhD
- Associate Professor in Radiation Oncology, Harvard Medical School
- Assistant in Biology, Edwin L. Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology


Alice Lin Pomponio, MPP
- Managing Director, American Cancer Society BrightEdge
- Advisor, Red Sky Partners
- Founder, Accendo


Andy Shin, JD, MPH
- Chief Operating Officer for the AHA Center for Health Innovation


Nancy R. Steele
- MIT linQ Faculty


Benjamin Vakoc, PhD
- Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School
- Massachusetts General Hospital Wellman Center for Photomedicine
Spring 2020 Independent Advisory Board


Saurabha Bhatnagar, MD
- Chief Medical Officer, Head of Technology & Performance, UnitedHealthcare


Bonnie Charland, PhD
- Associate Director of Quality Management, VA Boston Healthcare System


Heather Davidson, MD
- Deputy Chief of Staff, VA Boston HCS; Hospitalist
- Assistant Professor at Boston University School of Medicine


Melinda Decker
- Chief Commercial Officer, Mymee


Samuel “Mooly” Dinnar
- Founder of Meedance
- Instructor at Harvard and MIT
- Author of "Entrepreneurial Negotiation"


Will Febbo
- CEO of OptimizeRx


Christiana Iyasare, MD
- Director, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine Innovation Program
- Co-Founder, Dyrnamix, Inc.


Terry Keane, PhD
- Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at VA Boston Healthcare System
- Director of the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder’s Behavioral Science Division


Daphne Psacharopoulos
- CEO, Ironsides Medical


Jagesh Shah, PhD
- Vice President, Gene Therapy Technologies at Sana Biotechnology, Inc.


Barry Stein, MD, MBA, FSIR, FACR, RPVI
- Chief Clinical Innovation Officer at Hartford HealthCare


Frances Toneguzzo, PhD
Intellectual Property and Business Strategy Consultant