Press Date: 03/08/2010

Columbus, OH - OhioHealth earned two of Central Ohio's top technology prizes last month when TechColumbus - the region's technology incubator - honored executives David P. Blom and Cheryl L. Herbert, RN, with its 2009 Innovation Awards during a ceremony at the Greater Columbus Convention Center.

Blom, OhioHealth president and CEO, was named the region's Executive of the Year for companies with more than 50 employees, while Herbert, president of Dublin Methodist Hospital, was cited as the region's Outstanding Woman in Technology.

The award winners emerged from 254 semi-finalists - 40 percent more than the previous high. "Central Ohio is really coming to life as a technology hub and OhioHealth is leading the way," said Tim Haynes, vice president of member services and marketing for TechColumbus.

Blom was celebrated for his role the development of key initiatives, including:

• Creation of the OhioHealth Research & Innovation Institute, which provides broad access to centralized clinical research and technology transfer services across the OhioHealth system;
• Advancement of the Center for Medical Education + Innovation, a training laboratory that uses some of the world's most advanced patient simulation and education technologies; and,
• The opening of Dublin Methodist Hospital, one of the most technologically advanced hospitals in the United States.

Herbert was honored for realizing her vision of a "high-tech, high-touch" healing environment at Dublin Methodist Hospital that integrates a fully digital setting with evidence-based design principles to optimize patient care, comfort, convenience and safety.

Her vision drove the conceptualization, design and construction of Ohio's first fully digital, wireless hospital. Herbert partnered with the Center of Health Design's Pebble Project, a national research effort, to incorporate architectural features that have been shown to improve benefits and outcomes for patients and caregivers.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, OhioHealth is a nationally recognized, not-for-profit charitable healthcare organization of 18 hospitals, 23 health and surgery centers, home health providers, medical equipment and health service suppliers serving 46 counties. Under Blom's leadership, it has achieved financial stability and grown to 15,000 associates and more than $2 billion in net revenue.

Blom's emphasis on system-wide technology installments, such as fully automated closed loop medication management, telemedicine, electronic intensive care unit (eICU) technology and electronic medical records, has helped OhioHealth reduce medication errors by 92 percent, patient identification errors by 20 percent and cut treatment time for stroke and trauma - all while improving the organization's bottom line with more efficiency and less duplication.

Meantime, Blom fostered coordinated strategic partnerships inside and outside of OhioHealth to boost clinical research, facilitate the commercialization of new drugs and devices, connect clinical applications among hospitals, enhance e-commerce with vendors and revolutionize physician training.

TechColumbus especially was impressed with the OhioHealth Research & Innovation Institute (OHRI) that taps the expertise of OhioHealth clinicians as a vibrant source of creativity.

OHRI supported research and commercialization of clinician-driven advances such as a patented tape-less IV securing device from SyberMed, founded by anesthesiologist David Sybert, MD, and several patented surgery products from Minimally Invasive Devices, founded by surgeon Wayne Poll. "Those are just two examples coming out of OHRI that are raising the visibility of OhioHealth as an innovator," Haynes said.

Opened in January of 2008, Dublin Methodist Hospital has served as OhioHealth's model for the future of healthcare delivery. Herbert became the first hospital executive in the country to combine a "paperless" hospital environment with stress-free design and architecture. "We really believe the paperless approach creates a much better experience for patients," Haynes said.

In 2008 and 2009, Dublin Methodist Hospital was named one of America's "Most Wired Hospitals" by Hospital & Health Networks magazine. Under Herbert's leadership, it has successfully pioneered a wireless communication system, electronic access to diagnostic scans, a single sign-on security application that reads fingerprints for positive identifications, and web-based portals for physicians, associates and patients to communicate with each other.

TechColumbus is part of Ohio's Third Frontier Program to expand the state's high-tech research capabilities. It nurtures the formation and growth of new companies and strengthens existing ones with funding, networking opportunities and strategic planning.

"OhioHealth is at the forefront of our effort," Haynes said. "Leaders such as David Blom and Cheryl Herbert have helped create a culture of innovative and entrepreneurial thinking that encourages everyone in their organization to come forward with great ideas, even though it knows not all of them are going to work out. It is willing to go for the home run, when a lot of other companies are not."