SHM Converge Scientific Abstract ePoster Gallery-Bridging the Digital Implementation Gap: Operationalizing Agile Innovation and Reducing Clinician Burden via an Ehr-Embedded App Store at an Academic Medical Center

Bridging the Digital Implementation Gap: Operationalizing Agile Innovation and Reducing Clinician Burden via an Ehr-Embedded App Store at an Academic Medical Center

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This document describes Stanford Medicine’s effort to reduce the gap between EHR design and real clinical needs through the Stanford Emerging Apps Lab (SEAL), a cross-functional, agile product team. SEAL combines clinicians, engineers, product designers, informaticists, and strategy staff to rapidly build and deploy clinician-centered tools inside the Epic EHR using SMART on FHIR, creating an “app store” experience within the workflow.<br /><br />The model addresses common barriers to digital health adoption, including rigid EHR architecture, siloed governance, and poor communication between developers and frontline users. Since 2021, SEAL has evaluated 50 app ideas, deployed 13 apps, and is developing two AI-enabled tools. Its app store has been used 45,000 times by 2,100 unique providers caring for 15,000 patients.<br /><br />A detailed example is the Nutrition Provision Tool, built with registered dietitians to streamline inpatient nutrition assessments and reduce burden. Using rapid prototyping, Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, and statistical evaluation, the tool significantly reduced both time-on-task and perceived work burden among dietitians. Reported workflow time dropped from roughly 10–15 minutes to 5–10 minutes, while burden decreased from “somewhat burdensome” to “not at all burdensome.”<br /><br />The key conclusion is that large health systems can meaningfully reduce clinician cognitive load and administrative friction without major institutional overhaul by creating dedicated, multidisciplinary infrastructure for rapid-cycle innovation and clinician co-design.

Asset Subtitle

Oluseyi A. Fayanju

Meta Tag

Author List Christopher Sharp, Eileen Loh, Elyse Ruan, Imran Mohiuddin, Jennifer Tran, Joe Pallas, Lawrence Hofmann, Lisa Gohil, Oluseyi A. Fayanju, Ron Li, Shivam Vedak, Srinivasan Boosi, Stephen P. Ma

Category Innovations

Concept Electronic Health Record

Concept SMART on FHIR

Concept Clinical Workflow

Concept SEAL Model

Concept Clinical Cabinet

Distinguished Finalist

Presenter Organization Stanford University School of Medicine

Presenting Author Oluseyi A. Fayanju

Track Technology in Hospital Medicine

Keywords

Stanford Medicine

SEAL

EHR design

clinician-centered tools

Epic EHR

SMART on FHIR

digital health adoption

Nutrition Provision Tool

workflow optimization

rapid-cycle innovation

Electronic Health Record

SMART on FHIR

Clinical Workflow

SEAL Model

Clinical Cabinet