Anthem Opens Health Insurance Innovation Studio in Atlanta’s Technology Square

Anthem touts the new studio as a hub for the development of advancements in health IT to improve the consumer experience, quality of care and drive affordability.

Anthony R. O’Donnell //

(Image source: Anthem.)

Anthem (Indianapolis) has opened a new Innovation Studio in midtown Atlanta’s Technology Square. The health insurer describes the studio as a state-of-the-art facility housing a multi-disciplinary team that will focus on creating new capabilities to enhance the consumer health care experience, improve the quality of care, and lower health care costs. Anthem says that the 6,500 square-feet, open-concept office space will foster innovation by providing a collaborative environment that brings together industry leaders and technology experts.

Tom Miller, SVP, CIO, Anthem.

Tom Miller, SVP, CIO, Anthem.

“Innovation in health care is a priority for Anthem. By accelerating the development and implementation of new technologies, we’ll deliver a superior, more personalized health care experience for consumers,” comments Tom Miller, SVP and CIO, Anthem, Inc. “We have created a dynamic ecosystem to generate ideas and launch them into the initiatives, solutions and programs that can help transform health care.”

Anthem reports that it has established what it calls a sophisticated method for developing ideas and bringing them to fruition through a process of workshops and pitch days in which associates from across the company present ideas to be considered for development in Anthem’s innovation incubator. The Innovation Studio work will focus on further advancing Anthem’s three strategic pillars:

  • consumer experience,
  • managing the cost of care, and
  • provider collaboration.

Atlanta’s Technology Square has a reputation as a hub for innovation, with world-renowned Georgia Institute of Technology nearby, as well as research facilities, top-tier incubators, and a robust technology infrastructure. As the first Fortune 50 health benefits company with an innovation center in Technology Square, Anthem will be able to tap into Georgia Tech’s existing research and technology, cultivate strategic relationships, and develop opportunities for collaborating with other technology and innovation companies in the area, the insurer says.

Anthony R. O’Donnell // Anthony O'Donnell is Executive Editor of Insurance Innovation Reporter. For nearly two decades, he has been an observer and commentator on the use of information technology in the insurance industry, following industry trends and writing about the use of IT across all sectors of the insurance industry. He can be reached at AnthODonnell@IIReporter.com or (503) 936-2803.

Comment (1)

  1. Tom Miller may soon learn that it takes more than a shiny new “Innovation Studio” to foster innovation. Nor is forcing a significant portion of your IT workforce out the door so that you can remake and re-populate your IT workforce with young, inexperienced millennials from GA Tech automatically going to lead to some type of ground breaking innovation.

    Time will tell, but as a soon-to-be former IT employee (gave my noticed yesterday, and stay tuned–many more will follow), I get the impression that Tom Miller is in way over his head and will ultimately cost Anthem dearly, both monetarily and in terms of bleeding off key talent. Tom is taking a long-shot risk in an attempt to establish an IT utopia in his own home town of Atlanta, GA–including a Google style open workspace that has largely been debunked in recent years as being a useful workplace strategy.

    Again, time will tell, but Anthem may end up paying dearly for Tom Miller’s self-serving meddling. In fact, I would not be at all surprised to see Anthem a few years from now inviting Tom Miller himself to go find a new opportunity elsewhere.

    Reply

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