Throughout the company’s history, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) has embraced innovation to improve healthcare. In recent years, a changing healthcare landscape with new players, more data and bigger challenges meant Blue Cross NC needed to raise its innovation game. Enter the Innovation Garage concept.

 

The Innovation Garage has become Blue Cross NC's tech accelerator. The company moved quickly to hire a small but expert team of full-stack, open source, mobile, and technical engineers. While doing so, Blue Cross NC adopted better project management mechanics to improve speed to market, and began launching unique applications into the field. The Garage helps employees work differently – undiffused accountability, with a process designed for speed, touting competence and fostering an environment that facilitates learning. 
 
What does this approach to innovation look like in day-to-day practice and what has it achieved? In this session, we visit with Ralph Perrine, Director of Enterprise Architecture, IT Strategy, and Innovation, and Nitin Kadam, Enterprise Architect, as they describe what it's like to launch an in-house Health IT accelerator. Walk away with practical recommendations and project management approaches to launch your organization's own "Garage" concept.