Lisamarie LaVallee, left, memory program manager for Sutter’s Health’s neuroscience services, and Dr. Shawn Kile, neurologist with Sutter Medical Group, celebrate their team’s win.

When Sutter Health employees or clinicians have a suggestion to improve patient care they’re encouraged to share it. From daily huddles to monthly meetings, actionable feedback from the frontline has always helped teams across Sutter find solutions and boost results.

Recently, Sutter took its respect for staff and provider-led ideas a step further. This past fall, the organization launched a systemwide innovation challenge, asking its team members for their ideas to make Sutter the healthcare destination of choice for patients.

“We wanted folks to dream big, think outside the box, and channel their creativity to reimagine how Sutter serves its patients and supports its people,” says Chris Waugh, Sutter’s chief innovation officer.

The winning idea – a self-administered smartphone-based cognitive screen for Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia – was chosen by Sutter’s executive team for its potential benefit to patients and clinicians.

Sutter Philanthropy allocated up to $300,000 in seed money from generous donors – which included employees – to help make the idea a reality.

“I’m so proud of the continued partnership between Sutter’s Innovation Center and philanthropy so we can bring these bright ideas to life,” said Raya Elias-Petros, Sutter’s chief philanthropy officer.

The winning team will also receive development support from subject-matter experts within Sutter’s neuroscience, innovation, digital health and information technology teams, and from an outside advisory council, with the goal of launching a pilot version later this year.

“This innovation challenge is a testament to our dedication to fostering creativity and innovation within our organization. By supporting groundbreaking ideas like this screening tool, we continue to invest in advanced medical technology that can pave the way for early detection and better disease management,” said Sutter Health CEO Warner Thomas. “Innovation is at the heart of our mission to provide exceptional care, and we are excited to see the impact this new testing tool can have on improving patient outcomes.”

Winning Idea Takes on Illness that May Reach Epidemic Proportions

Dementia, which includes Alzheimer’s disease, is a chronic condition affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities – and it’s on the rise. Experts predict that the number of new cases of dementia per year will double by 2060 and that the lifetime risk of dementia after age 55 is 42%.

It’s also a disease that begins years before its first symptoms appear. “Alzheimer’s disease can begin 10 or even 20 years before symptoms are evident to the individual or their loved ones,” says Dr. Shawn Kile, a neurologist with Sutter Medical Group and lead physician for the team that won Sutter’s inaugural innovation challenge. “So, the earlier we can catch it, the better our chances are of successful intervention, especially in this new era of treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.”

The winning team wished for a way to screen all older adults for dementia.

For widespread early-stage screening  to take off, Dr. Kile and team reasoned it would need to be as easy as playing a game on your phone and accessible to all patients across the Sutter Health system. Inspiration hit and their idea for a phone-based digital screen, that was integrated into Sutter’s My Health Online patient portal, was born.

“Patients could take the test at home on their smartphone annually starting at age 60 and the results would integrate into our electronic medical record for evaluation,” says Dr. Kile. “This data could then help us identify which patients need further evaluation; providing earlier detection of illness, earlier treatment initiation, and – if the app is used repeatedly – a means to monitor symptoms over time.”

According to Dr. Kile the standard cognitive tests available today are so time consuming and cumbersome that they are infrequently used, especially as a screen, and often only offered in primary care to those patients who already have very pronounced cognitive symptoms. “By that time, patients may no longer be candidates for new therapies that need to be introduced at the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease,” he says.

This innovative system-wide screening program could also lead to enhanced collaborations between dementia specialists and primary care physicians, the first place that patients turn with memory concerns.

“We’d like to establish a care-navigation pathway, so patients and PCPs have help at every step of the journey. Ideally, we would achieve early detection, while easing the burden of screening on primary care and expediting access to specialty care services for those patients with the earliest signs of cognitive decline. This would result in best outcomes in dementia care and possibly even prevention of dementia in some cases. Optimistic, I know, but this is what I believe we can do at Sutter Health, and this innovation can help us to achieve that vision,” says Dr. Kile.

“There are potentially tens of thousands of people in Northern California alone who have undiagnosed cognitive impairment, so the necessity of this tool is clear,” said Jean Minton, vice president of Sutter’s neuroscience service line. “We are so grateful for the recognition and support that comes with winning Sutter’s first system-wide innovation challenge. This opportunity also aligns perfectly with our ambitious access initiatives, which are already underway.”

An example of Sutter’s access improvements can be seen in the expansion of the Ray Dolby Brain Health Center a nationally recognized care center for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia that has been serving patients since 2012. In addition to keeping the original location (45 Castro Street, San Francisco) and adding a second location (601 Duboce Avenue, San Francisco), the center has a satellite clinic in Novato and plans to open an additional satellite location in the East Bay. Eventually, both of the San Francisco locations will move into a new, purpose built, multi-specialty neurosciences care complex in San Francisco’s Mission Bernal neighborhood, slated to open in 2028.

Curiosity Drives Innovation in Medicine

Curiosity is prized in medicine, it’s also one of Sutter’s core values. “I find that people in healthcare are innately curious, from the doctors, advanced practice clinicians, researchers and nurses to the engineers, informaticists, and analysts, we’re all innovators at heart,” says Sutter chief digital officer and innovation challenge judge, Laura Wilt.  

Sutter’s innovation challenge helped harness the organization’s culture of curiosity by empowering teammates to ask: what if, what’s possible and what’s next during a 40 day idea submission period. The response was outstanding.  

People engaged from across Sutter’s entire organization, and from a wide variety of roles. More than 5,000 team members participated by visiting the challenge platform and either submitted an idea, added a comment to an existing idea or voted for their favorite idea. Nearly 150 teams formed, brainstormed and collaborated virtually before submitting 246 ideas.

Like the participants themselves the ideas were wide-ranging and covered almost every aspect of the high-quality care that Sutter provides. Many ideas sparked questions or pointed to an existing solution that could be spread more broadly. A handful of ideas related to work already underway at the organization. Each submitted idea was carefully reviewed and shared with the Sutter leader who could help the idea advance.

Sutter Health’s innovation challenge advisory council.

A popular vote, in which nearly 17,000 votes were cast, and evaluations from leaders helped narrow the contest field to nine semifinalists ideas. Those top teams then received guidance and mentorship from an advisory council of local entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders. The advisors volunteered hours of their time and expertise to help the semifinalist teams refine their concepts and ready their business case for a ‘pitch fest’ that decided the winner.

Another Innovation Challenge Ahead

Once only an idea itself, Sutter’s innovation challenge gave people the opportunity to experiment and form teams around a shared sense of possibility. Participants in the process overwhelmingly voiced their appreciation for the mentorship they received while working on their ideas and the opportunity to share their concepts with Sutter leaders. In fact, feedback has been so positive, that the challenge will be repeated in June 2025.

“I am so proud of all the teams that participated in our first challenge. Supporting your curiosity will help us level up and find solutions for the most pressing challenges in healthcare today and in the future. So, start brainstorming with your colleagues now, and maybe you’ll be a finalist in the next innovation challenge,” said Sutter Health CEO Warner Thomas.