As innovation becomes an increasingly important function at many health systems, an exclusive professional organization has formed to provide a supportive community for the chief innovation officers who lead the charge of innovation at not-for-profit organizations.

Healthcare Innovators Professional Society (HIPS), composed of innovation leaders from 36 of the nation’s most prominent health systems, including UPMC, Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Intermountain Healthcare, and other high-profile systems, recently convened for the first time in Houston.

With members representing one of every five U.S. hospitals, HIPS is a powerhouse that has the potential to become a collective force in the industry—a forum where ideas will be shared and collaborative deals will begin—a nexus that could accelerate the process of innovation throughout the healthcare system.

Membership is by invitation only and the group may only add another five members in the coming year, according to founder Toby Hamilton, MD. As an innovator himself, Hamilton saw a void in the professional landscape for a group that addresses the needs of chief innovation and transformation officers. HIPS, he says, is the first and only professional, nonpartisan, non-profit community for innovation leaders, offering advocacy, recognition, and a supportive community.

In addition to exchanging ideas, leaders attending the Houston meeting discovered they shared the following mutual challenges, according to Hamilton, who serves as executive director of HIPS:

• The perception that innovation is supplemental and non-profit hospitals can only fund it in the best of economic times
• A definition of innovation in many healthcare settings that narrowly focuses on opportunistic new technologies instead of strategic, long-term approaches
• A wide variation in innovation roles from one healthcare system to another, often with a lack of understanding of the role, which limits the innovator’s ability to create change across the system