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Milwaukee VA Medical Center and UW-Milwaukee collaborate for interdisciplinary innovation workshop

Milwaukee VA Medical Center and University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee staff and faculty at a table draw each other without looking at the paper
Milwaukee VA Medical Center and University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee staff and faculty exercise their creativity during the first VA and UWM Interdisciplinary Human-centered Design Workshop at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center on UWM's campus May 20.
By Katie Eggers, Public Affairs Specialist

Milwaukee VA Medical Center and University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee staff and faculty gathered for the first VA and UWM Interdisciplinary Human-centered Design Workshop at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center on UWM’s campus May 20.

“Zablocki and its community are linked in a special way that you don’t see with many other organizations,” said Jim McLain, executive director of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. “This is another stop on our journey of further building that bond, creating a space where our staff can work with UWM staff and other community partners to drive innovation.”

The workshop brought Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center staff into a creative forum to teach skills to facilitate innovation and find solutions to healthcare problems.

“We all work in health care, and we all deal with what I call the duct tape solution,” said Dr. Kim Litwack, dean of the College of Health Professionals and Sciences at UWM. “This doesn’t work, so use duct tape and we’ll make it work. ‘The IV pole is falling off the bed, use duct tape, we’ll make it work.’ Now we’re going to think about how to fix it so it’s not just duct tape, because duct tape is a workaround, and workaround doesn’t always equal safety.”

VA staff were encouraged to think about different ways to approach and address problems. During the workshop, they collaborated to craft innovative ideas and programs that can be brought back to the Milwaukee VA and have a direct positive impact on Veterans’ lives.

“The Lubar Entrepreneurship Center was created with the idea that this kind of thing would happen, that we would build communities, innovations and bring together partnerships,” said Brian Thompson, chief of innovation and partnership at UWM.

Many of the VA staff participants shared the sentiment that they plan to apply the skills they learned during the workshop, brainstorm new ideas, and work with colleagues to develop solutions to problems they see in their work.