A Note from the Interim Director
These days, the term innovation seems to be permeating every lexicon. Perhaps it is our optimism coming out of a global pandemic, or perhaps it is the forward-thinking culture that is embedded in the academy. Regardless, many are eager to think about what’s new, and what might be different.
You may notice the wide use of innovation within our university. The Illinois website states: “With our land-grant heritage as a foundation, we pioneer innovative research that tackles global problems and expands the human experience.” In 2019, our Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research added “Innovation” to its name and focus. Our Carle Illinois College of Medicine develops future physician-innovators to question the standard-of-care and think about how care and processes could be improved. Most recently, it has been my honor to chair the Health Innovation Visioning Committee charged by Chancellor Jones to consider a new technology-inspired academic health research and education model that will make a significant, visible, and sustained impact on human health. You can likely think of other examples.
Innovation means different things to different people, so how would we define it? Innovation must be something new, but it must also be something entirely different and novel. Adding a new technology, program, or process to our research or educational repertoire may be new to us, but it may not necessarily be innovative if it exists somewhere else. Our challenge as innovators is to also be visionary – to think, develop, and do something that doesn’t yet exist. That’s truly innovative.
Innovation is not synonymous with idea or invention. Innovation starts with new ideas, but also must then include ways for implementing those ideas to result in impact. And though we may think of innovation in terms of a new technology or device, innovation often occurs as new services, processes, models, ways of thinking, and social and societal changes to our relationships, communities, and cultures.
Collectively, one of our goals for the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute is to foster and then support health science and technology innovation here at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, alongside our collaborative partners. How do we develop a culture of innovation – a culture that looks to solve the health-related problems we face across dimensional scales, from the individual to the community and globally? As faculty, students, staff, and administrative leaders, we develop this culture by coming together in interdisciplinary ways, spanning historical boundaries, with each of us bringing our collective experience, perspective, and expertise. Together we create value that cannot be bought, value that is critically needed to solve the challenges we now and have yet to face.
I challenge each of us to think about how we can become more innovative, and to consider where innovation is needed in the work that we do. Though some may say that the term innovation is now over-used, I don’t think we’re done with it. Innovation means we are forward thinking, it means we are all thinking of ways to improve, and it means there is hope in our future. Innovation will never be an over-used term at Illinois if we are the ones to define, to demonstrate the impact that can be made, and to show just how much innovation is a part of our spirit and culture.
Why do we need innovation? It’s what defines the future. It’s what defines the change that is needed to bring about better ways of living, and life. It’s what perhaps makes us human, and will define our humanity.
Stephen Boppart, M.D., Ph.D.
Interim Director, IHSI