Earlier in the week, the recipients of the inaugural President’s Innovation Fund (PIF) awards have been announced by UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals.
As per reports, launched earlier in the year, the fund is a new grant-awarding program drafted to spark novel ideas for solving everyday problems among the hospital’s staff and faculty.
According to Michael Anderson, MD, President of the two-campus children’s hospital enterprise and senior vice president of children’s services for UCSF Health, we are well aware that input from our valued team is really vital to our success, and it is in that spirit that we launched the President’s, Innovation Fund.”
Through the PIF awards, UCFS Health aims to enable all staff members across every level of the organization to translate their ideas into measurable actions that address some of the key challenges which UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland is currently facing.
Anderson has also said that the organization has already held talks for developing a similar program at the hospital’s San Francisco campus, as well.
As per reports, 13 projects were selected from a competitive pool of 29 applications by the review committee, the selected applications will be eligible to receive funding of up to $75,000 for a one-year period, with the potential for renewal.
Anderson then went on to explain, “The awardees represent all areas of the organization, from underscoring the depth and breadth of the talent, the commitment of the team, creativity, surgery, to child life services as well as psychiatry.”
Anderson also further added,” Over the next year, PIF award funds will be used to facilitate inpatient support groups for young cancer patients, create a pipeline for a more diverse child life workforce, use virtual reality technologies to reduce patient anxiety and pain, and implement a mentoring program to support nurse, among many others.”
Anderson concluded his statement by saying, “I look forward to seeing how all of these projects develop and further our capacity to achieve our mission, on behalf of Healthy Children, Healthy Communities, and a Healthy World.”
