Congratulations to the winners of the
2022-23 Big Ideas Competition!
View the winning teams.
The intent of the Big Ideas Program is to support novel and innovative projects that are clinically relevant, technically feasible, and operationally sustainable. Annually, the program provides an opportunity for collaborative clinical, operational and research teams to develop innovations in informatics and healthcare delivery.
Applicants may request up to $50,000 in grant funding.
The intent of this competition is to support innovative projects that are clinically relevant, rigorously evaluated and operationally sustainable. Applications should explain how their proposed project speaks to these characteristics. Successful proposals could, for example, reflect the following strategies:
- Using personalized health data to inform/optimize care.
- Moving healthcare delivery closer to where patients live, work, and play.
- Harnessing community data to improve community health.
Both BJC and WUSM have updated their strategic and clinical priorities, and we strongly encouraging Big Ideas applicants to focus on one or more of these priorities:
- Reducing or eliminating hospitalizations (e.g. ”Hospital at Home”, early discharge, post-hospitalization support)
- Maternal health
- Patient education
- Patient communication
- Health system “wayfinding”
- Nursing workflow productivity
- Optimizing hospitalization use (e.g. predictions of hospitalization surges, better organization and sequencing of inpatient testing and interventions)
- Leveraging virtual care to reduce “low value” in-person encounters
- Value measurement at the clinic and/or condition-specific program level
Some examples of successful project ideas might include:
- How might we help our patients navigate our system?
- How might we better communicate with our patients?
- How might we better educate our patients?
- How might we help inpatients get home and stay home?
- How might we help at-risk moms during their pregnancy and post-partum period?
- How can we use AI to deliver the right information to the right provider in the right place and time and improve the quality, safety, and outcomes of care?
- How can we use computation to reduce the burden of medical documentation and help our clinicians to spend more time with their patients?
Hear from previous Big Ideas participants about what it’s like to get your idea funded and how it’s helped their team implement the idea in a real clinical setting.
The competition encourages applications from all individuals affiliated with BJC HealthCare and/or the Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM), with a preference for projects that involve collaboration across the two organizations. The Lab and I2 administrations are happy to help facilitate connections between BJC and School of Medicine partners, if needed.
- High impact proposals that do not involve multiple sites or organizations will also be considered for funding.
- For research fellows or trainees, the mentor (faculty member) must submit the application as the primary investigator. Please describe within the application the trainee-mentor circumstance.
- Primary investigators/project leads may hold only one innovation award at a time and total awarded funds may not exceed $50,000 within a 12-month period. (PIs may serve as team members on multiple teams.)
- Proposals should include at least three members in good standing in order to be considered. An example of a successful team could be: a clinician, a research investigator, and an operational champion.
- The proposal should highlight how funding will be used to advance healthcare delivery.
| Oct. 20, 2021 Dec. 8, 2021 Jan 12, 2022 | Letter of Intent Office Hours, 1:30 – 3 p.m. |
| Mar. 15, 2022 | Letter of Intent Due |
| Mar. 29, 2022 | Judges Review and Finalist Selections |
| Apr. 19, 2022 | Pitch Event |
| May 2, 2022 | Final Applications Due |
| May 16, 2022 | Winners Selected and Notified |
Submit letters of intent using this form.
Accepted intent proposals will be invited to apply.
For more information or to ask questions, please contact us at bigideas@wustl.edu.