Innovations Profile Series: Sakina Dharas, Innovation Fellow

In our latest Innovations Profile feature, Sakina Dharas, who is currently in the Innovation Fellows program, discusses what she finds exciting about her new role, her introduction to Innovations through the Innovation Fellows program, and what innovation means to her.

Q: What brought you to Cleveland Clinic London, and how long have you been with Cleveland Clinic?

A: I’ve been at Cleveland Clinic London for four years. I began in February of 2020 just before the pandemic. I feel like the name of Cleveland Clinic proceeded itself as a global leader in healthcare. I was working in the digital health space for a National Health Service (NHS) hospital called University College London (UCL) Hospital. At UCL, I trained as a pharmacist and I was helping with digital health implementations, specifically with Epic and other systems, and a colleague and friend of mine mentioned that Cleveland Clinic London was opening. Given the recognition and prestige of Cleveland Clinic is an international hospital, I was really intrigued, so I applied to the Chemical Informatics department, which I am currently still in. I’ve been at Cleveland Clinic since, but the Innovations path happened a little later.

Q: How were you introduced to Cleveland Clinic Innovations?

A: I was always interested in the idea of innovation. I didn’t know it specifically as a process. Innovation is not necessarily something I was exposed to through the culture of an organization, but more so something I was introduced to more organically, from personal experience. While I was in my clinical practice as a pharmacist, I noticed that medicines being wasted was a major problem. On the wards, we would see cartons and bins full of wasted and unused medications. I did research and found that billions of pounds within the UK are wasted every year on unused medicines. A colleague of mine, who was also a medic, shared with me that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was doing a health hackathon where people in the health space could present their ideas. So I went to MIT, and I pitched my idea, where I went through a process of rapid prototyping. We worked within a diverse team, and I found the entire experience to be really exciting and interesting. That was my gateway into the whole concept of clinicians having a voice to innovate and create.

Cleveland Clinic has a great focus on identifying problems and creating solutions to solve unmet clinical needs, and I didn’t realize that I was going through that kind of process on my own while at NHS. So that was insightful and exciting. When I came back from MIT, I realized I had caught the innovation bug a little bit. When I was settled into my role at Cleveland Clinic within Clinical Informatics and we opened our first site, I felt like I wanted to embark on something new. I searched innovations in healthcare in general and I serendipitously came across Cleveland Clinic Innovations. After doing some research about the department and team, I was eager to see if there was an opportunity for me to get involved in some capacity. This is when I first learned of the Innovation Fellows program.

Q: How did you hear about the Innovations Fellows program, and what has being in the program entailed for you?

A: In 2022, when I reached out to learn more about Cleveland Clinic Innovations, I was introduced to Beth Sump from the Proof of Concept Office and Innovations Engagement teams. Beth shared with me a lot about what was going on within Cleveland Clinic Innovations and how they just started the Innovation Fellows program. I found the process to be a more in-depth and formal program compared to the insight I had at MIT, so I was immediately intrigued.

I’m undergoing a Master’s in healthcare and design, which is very focused on healthcare innovation, and I find it to be a great convergence of what I found to be a great fit for what was being covered in the Innovation Fellows program. I applied, and the experience has been a pivotal and career-changing one for me that caused a seismic shift in where I saw my career going. The first year of the program was a lot of theory-based learning where the Fellows gained an understanding of the process of what happens when you go from idea to invention, right through to commercialization. We were given tasks of doing patterns to assessment as well, which provided beneficial practical experience. In the second year of the program, we’ve been working on our Catalyst SPARK project. During this time, we were given hands-on experience of seeing where things could progress and what happens with specific projects rather than just learning from a theoretical perspective, which I found really great.

Q: Being located at Cleveland Clinic London, what has the Innovation Fellows program meant to you?

I’m the only one from London in the program, so it has provided me the opportunity to make connections across the enterprise. It means a lot to me to be able to bridge the gap across our two markets in Cleveland and London and make connections that bring the operating model of Innovations to the UK. There are opportunities for innovation everywhere, but to be able to be the facilitator of the process here in London is exciting for me. While I am the only London representative, my hope and goal are that this opens opportunities for future caregivers in London to be a part of Innovations as well so that we, too, can make significant strides in advancing and enhancing patient care.

Q: How is the innovation mindset viewed and approached in London compared to the United States?

A: I can only really speak to my own experience and during a recent presentation I gave to London physicians about Innovations, I heard similar feelings echoed back. Within the health system in London, there isn’t a palpable culture of innovation yet. At Cleveland Clinic, innovation is one of the core values so that we can be the leaders in advancing patient care and outcomes.

In the United States culture, my perception is that the entrepreneurial mindset is much more pushed and supported than in the UK. This could be a philosophical discussion because we had some of the doctors express during our conversation that the NHS was founded in the spirit of public service and to try and come up with things that would lead to entrepreneurship and commercialization and not take that into account might be too high-risk. I emphasized the point that the connection with Cleveland Clinic was very much about putting patients first and innovation was a way of doing so. What we stand for, what we’re all about, is fueling that kind of hunger for innovation to be able to give the best possible care to our patients. So, it’s not a case of just trying to make money, it’s about the end result of helping patients. I feel like we have a lot to learn from the culture of innovation and I’m excited to facilitate the innovative mindset in London.

Q: So you’ll be officially starting your role at the conclusion of your fellowship, correct?

A: I’ve begun my role with the team, and once the Innovation Fellows program ends, I’ll ramp up into my role with Innovations even more. In January I had the pleasure of coming to Cleveland to meet the Innovations team, which was a great experience. While I’m still part of the Fellows program, my role at the moment is more around engagement and awareness and how we are trying to set up the Innovations process in London. I think this is a nice transition period between the Fellows program and my role with the team, as I see and experience things from both an inventor side as a fellow and an operations side. It was so special for me to be able to meet everyone earlier this year so I could build a rapport with the team.

Q: What are you most excited about with your role? What are you hoping to achieve?

A: This may be a lofty goal, but I really want every caregiver in London to know what Innovations is and that we are available to support them. Already this year we’ve had our first Invention Disclosure Form (IDF) submitted at Cleveland Clinic London. Just being able to have caregivers be aware of us is my first goal. The way I found out about Innovations was on my own. It was very serendipitous, which is great, but I want our caregivers to be aware without having to go and find out for themselves. Innovation is one of our core values. I want people to just know when they identify a problem or unmet need and have an idea to solve it, Innovations is their resource to bring their vision to life. I want my colleagues to think, “I’m going to go talk to Sakina; maybe this is something that I can work on with Innovations.” I want us in London to feel like we are a part of that bigger picture and part of the wider Cleveland Clinic ecosystem.

Q: What does innovation mean to you?

A: I believe innovation is about people being able to actualize their dreams of wanting a better world when it comes to helping patients. That’s what innovation in relation to healthcare means to me if I had to put it in a statement. It’s about giving and allowing people the opportunity to actualize their visions for a better future for patients to make their lives better.

I think every team in Innovations approaches that philosophy in a different way that is unique to their area of expertise. Whether it be through assessing the marketing, protecting intellectual property, working with a portfolio company, etc., we’re all here for the right reason and for the same reason. Our North Star is patient care, and we are all pointing in the same direction.

Beth expressed to me when I first met her that she has the best job in the world because she gets to help people achieve their dreams. And to have gone through the process with the Innovation Fellows program, I have seen that her sentiment is very much the case. There are things that don’t necessarily make it through the innovation process, but the bigger picture is very much that we are doing amazing things that are changing the face of healthcare and the future for patients. Earlier in my career and at university I worked with inventors of novel drugs. It feels crazy for me to be at a point in my life where things have already come full circle. I once only learned about drug development, and now I’m with an inventor of a drug looking at how they first started inventing. It’s kind of mind-blowing! Innovation really is as exciting as you would think.