Innovation Dinner

In early November 2023, we welcomed the American Nurse Association (ANA) Vice President of Innovation, Dr. Oriana Beaudet, RN, as the keynote speaker at a dinner celebrating nurse innovation. Nurses often find themselves improvising solutions to healthcare challenges at the bedside and beyond. To promote the health and well-being of patients, nurses create or adapt products and processes to make them safer and more efficient. In her role as VP of Innovation, Oriana works to “Ensure the ability for nurses to lead at all levels of society— thereby transforming practice and the health of people across the continuum of care.”

As part of the informative evening built around her talk, there was a poster session with Center-funded researchers, comments from Dean Sanjay Raman of the College of Engineering and Dean Allison Vorderstrasse of the Elaine Marieb College of Nursing, a talk by Dr. Cidàlia Vital, RN, one of the nurse scientists leading Baystate Health’s collaboration with the Center, and remarks from Lily Stowe-Alekman, aide for State Representative Mindy Domb, who discussed the Manufacturer’s Award given to the Center by Domb for “leadership of and dedication to manufacturing medical devices.”

In her keynote presentation titled “Igniting Nurse-Led Healthcare Innovation with Nurse-Engineer Teaming,” Oriana discussed innovative products created by nurses such as Safe Seizure pads (inflatable, easy to stock, and cost-conscious pads to protect hospital patients from injuries during seizures), and community pop-up clinics located in farmers’ markets and other unique locations that provide fresh produce alongside preventative healthcare.