Podcast Interview with Dr. Richard Zane: “You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs.”

Finding the right innovation partner is not easy. In fact, the reality is that when you vet as many companies as UCHealth has as part of its ongoing goal to disrupt and reinvent healthcare, you’re going to “kiss a lot of frogs.”

But if the goals and values are aligned, and the right intent and expectations are established upfront, it can result in a great relationship, said Richard Zane, MD, who holds the dual role of Chief Innovation Officer at University of Colorado Health (UCHealth) and academic chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In a recent interview, he spoke about the ultimate objectives of digital health and intelligence, the guiding principles with any technology solution, and the one component that matters most when working with clinicians.

Dr. Zane also discussed what it was like to be UCHealth’s first Chief Innovation Officer, why leaders shouldn’t always target the “sexy” projects, and the symbiotic relationship he has established with Chief Information Officer Steve Hess.

Part 1

Part 2



* The “secret sauce” in finding the right partner

* Dangers of preconceived notions

* “We have a team that together can solve this problem.”

* Vetting 600-plus companies – “We kiss a lot of frogs.”

* Triangular partnerships

* “We look for problems on the frontline. Sometimes they’re not sexy.”

* The “symbiotic” relationship between chief information & chief innovation officer

* Blazing a new trail at UCHealth



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Bold Statements

The worst companies to work with are those that have a preconceived notion of what the problem is, and have designed a solution without including us.

There’s a willingness with the company we work with. The companies that don’t have that willingness don’t get to work with us, and we have no interest in working with them.

It’s not Silicon Valley or Boston. I don’t have a scarlet S or a crimson H on the side of my building. And so my differentiator is that we get stuff done. We move forward deliberately.

We look for problems on the frontlines; sometimes they aren’t sexy. Online scheduling is not sexy, but it’s what we have to do. It’s what patients deserve and want.

It requires pragmatism. It requires a CIO who is beyond committed to impacting the lives of our patients, and strongly believes that the strategy for IT is the innovation strategy, and the innovation strategy is the IT strategy.

Gamble:  Let’s talk about finding the right innovation partner. I imagine that’s not an easy decision; you need to have a lot of faith in them, and in the partner. Can you talk about your process when it comes to vetting companies?

Zane:  Absolutely. It’s the most important part, right? The characteristics of a partner is really important. We look at the usual things: do they have a track record? Have they done anything else? Do they have references? What’s their funding like? Do they have confidence?

What we do is, we put the right people in a room together for a collaboration assessment — that’s after the initial screening. If you look on our website, there’s a place where you can apply to be partner with us. We have venture analysts that do due diligence and background on a company; if you make it through that process — and most companies do not — then we do a collaboration assessment.

That’s where the company comes in, almost always with their CEO and leadership team, and we get them in a room with my team, as well as some subject matter experts.