Roberta Schwartz, Houston Methodist’s chief innovation officer, has had years of experience overseeing technology adoption at her organization. At a conference, she highlighted how important it is for digital health tools to have strong EHR integrations and encouraged hospital leaders to not be afraid of starting various technology initiatives in unrelated areas.

Houston Methodist is opening a new innovation hub at the Ion, a 16-acre innovation district established by the city of Houston and Rice University. The health system will use the space to partner with local talent to develop new digital health tools for its eight smart hospitals.

Providers’ legal defense against lawsuits aiming to tear down vaccine mandates is wide-ranging, from making the argument that allowing an unvaccinated worker into their facilities could pose a direct threat to the worker to invoking a 1905 precedent set by the Supreme Court.

The lawsuit alleges that the policy is akin to forcing employees to participate in a medical experiment as none of the vaccines available have received full FDA approval. But Houston Methodist rebutted these claims saying the vaccines are safe and effective, and requiring employees to get vaccinated is in the best interest of the patient.