Carilion Innovation—For Our Employee Inventors

To encourage the ongoing Curiosity of our employees, we have launched Carilion Innovation, led by Troy Keyser, director of Innovation.

The team is dedicated to uncovering, developing and commercializing health care concepts and inventions produced by you—our physicians, nurses and staff— because you are at the forefront of improving the care we provide to our communities.

In an age when technology is behind so much of how we work, from electronic medical health records to state-of-the-art procedures and equipment that save and extend lives, the next great advances in care come from committing ourselves to the best care possible for our patients.

Such innovations may even end up helping individuals elsewhere in Virginia, across the country and around the world.

The Innovation team will help us accelerate and capitalize on innovations that the curious among us are developing internally or advancing alongside leaders regionally, nationally and globally.

“We want to partner with our employees who want to use their innovations and inventions to address and solve real problems in health care,” said Troy. “Those efforts will allow our flourishing health care community to stand out among its peers.”  

Carilion Innovation includes a Proof of Concept Program (POCP) that provides advice and funds for promising inventions that may be commercially viable. The team also offers IP strategy and implementation, planning and preparation to help take inventions to market and guidance on deals with both internal and external stakeholders.

Troy and the Innovation team want to hear from you if:

• You have an invention with commercial potential
• You have had interest in the health care industry about licensing your inventions or intellectual property (IP)
• There is a company that would like to create or collaborate with you on a new product or service that would then be brought to market

“Your invention could be merely an idea that hasn’t been brought to practice or a device to meet a health care need that’s not being addressed,” Troy said. “If you believe in your vision and using it to solve a problem or to meet a need, it could have a larger commercial potential.”

For cases in which innovations may not be commercially viable, the Innovation team may be able to offer other options to you.

The Innovation team will be reaching out to staff through departmental and hospital gatherings in the months ahead. 

For more information, go to the Innovation hub. Make it a Quick Link on your homepage for the latest Innovation information and when to attend networking events!