Explore Innovation Research

This research supported in part by Innovate@BU and the University of Pennsylvania Medicine to understand how COVID-19 is changing the way healthcare professionals utilize technology, innovate, share ideas, problem-solve and conduct their work. If you are a healthcare professional interested in participating in a short, anonymous phone call or video interview, please rakarp@bu.edu.

We are interested in understanding:

• Engagement with new types of technology (e.g., telemedicine)
• Changes in organizational policies and procedures
• New ways of learning (e.g., use of social media to share information)
• New innovations developed to address scarce resources
• New ways of testing, modes of treatments, and patient care

 Am I a fit for this study?

All health professionals licensed to work in the United States are encouraged to participate in this study, regardless of gender, role, tenure, age, and geography. We seek a diversity of participants.

What is expected?

We will schedule an interview with you, with the expectation of 30 minutes, conducted over the phone, Skype or Zoom. All participants and their employers will be kept anonymous and unidentifiable. Informed consent will be obtained by the principal investigator before each subject participates in an interview. All interviews will be transcribed and if agreeable, recorded.

What is to be gained from participation?

We will code the data to identify broad themes suitable for both practice and scholarly publication. This would include sharing best practices we identify through the study with your medical community. We realize this is a busy time for all healthcare professionals, but feel that collecting this data contemporaneously as it is experienced will provide a valuable contribution to our understanding of how to adapt in a crisis. From our experience, interview participants often gain new insight from sharing their stories.

Interviews will be conducted through June 1^st, 2021.

Starting in January 2019, Innovate@BU will begin an Entrepreneurial Internship program in collaboration with MassChallenge, providing students with hands-on experiences with some of the world’s most promising digital health ventures.

MassChallenge HealthTech (MCHT) is an annual, six-month program and competition that matches payors, providers, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and more with qualified early-stage digital health ventures, in efforts to improve and accelerate innovative outcomes.

Learn more about the internship opportunities. 

Are you a BU doctoral student? Do you do research related to innovation or entrepreneurship?Join a university-wide group of doctoral students passionate about innovation or entrepreneurship!Innovate@BU provides resources and support to link and amplify innovation and entrepreneurial efforts across BU’s 17 schools and colleges. Its broader aim is to cultivate an entrepreneurial mindset throughout the entire BU community and enhance students’ and alumni’s access and exposure to innovative and entrepreneurial courses, programs and experiences. To nurture, grow, and amplify the impact of research on innovation and entrepreneurship across the University, Innovate@BU is looking to connect all BU doctoral students researching innovation or entrepreneurship in an inclusive community network across all Schools, Colleges, and disciplines. Innovate@BU will give you the opportunity to share your research, meet like-minded people, learn from diverse scholars across campus, collaborate on interdisciplinary projects and integrate your academic research into entrepreneurship and innovation initiatives at BUild Lab, BU’s student innovation center at 730 Commonwealth Avenue.If this sounds like you, join the community and the conversation by emailing Innovate@BU at phdinnov@bu.edu. Let your voice inform our programming.