Frontline Innovation Team Works to Redesign Patient Identification
Post Date: November 4, 2025 | Publish Date:
A team of nurses, designers, scientists and health system leaders at Cincinnati Children’s have developed a set of prototypes to rethink a fundamental aspect of hospital care: maintaining accurate identification of children as they move through our complex organization.
Their work reflects a months-long collaboration between Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati’s Live Well Collaborative supported by a new program called Frontline Innovation.
“Patient ID bands are critical to ensuring every child receives the right care at the right time,” says Allison Schlinkert, assistant vice president of Patient Services, Center of Professional Excellence. “But input from staff and families revealed opportunities to improve comfort, usability, and integration. We’re excited to move toward solutions that truly work for patients, families, and providers.”
The next step is testing the new concepts and connecting with industry partners who can help create commercial solutions that would become available to many hospitals.
“We see this as a chance to set a new standard for pediatric safety and experience,” says Katy Bedinghaus, practice consultant for the Center for Professional Excellence. “By combining our clinical and research expertise with the creativity and resources of industry partners, we can co-develop solutions that make a difference far beyond our own health system.”
Addressing a compliance challenge
The need for improvement was first identified through a Cincinnati Children’s Intermediate Improvement Science Series (I2S2) project aimed at increasing armband compliance.
“Quality improvement efforts improved our processes, but input from staff and the Patient Family Advisory Council revealed that armbands are often described as uncomfortable or inconvenient,” Schlinkert says. “This got us thinking about how we might create a better product for our patients and staff to use.”
Last fall, Frontline Innovation — a team assembled by Innovation Ventures at Cincinnati Children’s to accelerate product development – held its inaugural Innovation Incubator session. The session focused on improving patient ID armbands.
Since then, the project has delved into focused design research, including 72 hours of on-site observations across 17 units and 150 staff/family interactions. The results: a collection of concepts that emphasize comfort, accessibility and support patient engagement.
Now, the team is vetting and refining the concepts to determine which ones have the strongest potential appeal for commercialization.
If you’re an industry partner interested in advancing this innovation, or a Cincinnati Children’s employee curious about partnering with the Frontline Innovation team, we’d love to connect! Reach out to Abby Hess or Micah Dean to explore collaboration and engagement opportunities: Innovation.Ventures@cchmc.org
Project Contributors:
Katy Bedinghaus, Nursing Practice Education Consultant, Cincinnati Children’s; Delaney Burke, Sr. User Experience Research Fellow, Live Well Collaborative; Amanda Carver, Safety Consultant, Cincinnati Children’s; Micah Dean, Director of Health Services Ventures, Cincinnati Children’s; Linda Dunseath, Executive Director, Live Well Collaborative; Kimberly Dunn, Registered Nurse III, Cincinnati Children’s; Brianna Dzuricsko, Master of Design Co-op, University of Cincinnati (UC); Jose Generoso, Assistant Professor, Cincinnati Children’s; Abby Hess, Clinical Innovation Lead, Cincinnati Children’s; Kristin Laswell, Nursing Practice Consultant, Cincinnati Children’s; Claudia Lillibridge, Senior Specialist, Project Management, Innovation Ventures; Jamie Maier, Design Research Leader, Educator and Project Lead, Live Well Collaborative; Jenna Nilles, Registered Nurse II, Cincinnati Children’s; Dvija Patel, Master of Design Co-op, University of Cincinnati (UC); Allison Schlinkert, PI, AVP Patient Services, Cincinnati Children’s and Nika Umnov, Senior Design Research Fellow, Live Well Collaborative.
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The Research Horizons blog features news and insights about the latest discoveries and innovations developed by the scientists of Cincinnati Children's. This blog does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Email researchnews@cchmc.org with questions or ideas.
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