Rockin' HIT Sales Podcast
Designing With Nurses, Not For Them: A Playbook for Health IT Founders
Hiyam M. Nadel, MBA, RN, CCG, is the Director of the Center for Innovations in Care Delivery at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She is a nurse leader specializing in clinical innovation, operational transformation, and healthcare technology.
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Episode Summary
In this episode of Rockin’ HIT Sales, David Hacker sits down with Hiyam Nadel of Mass General for a practical conversation on why Health IT companies need to build with frontline clinicians, not simply sell to them.
Hiyam explains how her team captures pain points from the frontline, crowd-sources ideas, prioritizes the problems that matter most to staff, and helps move selected concepts into further development, piloting, and potential scale.
The discussion also explores what vendors often misunderstand about nursing workflow, why implementation can make or break even a strong product, and why Health IT companies should involve nurses early when validating the problem, shaping the roadmap, and testing whether a solution fits into real care delivery.
If you build, sell, or invest in Health IT solutions used by nurses or frontline care teams, this episode is a clear reminder: workflow fit, co-design, and honest problem validation matter more than polished marketing.
Why This Matters for Health IT Companies
Health IT products can fail even when the underlying technology is strong if they are designed without a clear understanding of frontline workflow. Nurses and other care-team members see operational friction every day, which makes their input critical for validating whether a problem is real, whether a proposed solution fits the way care is actually delivered, and whether the product will be adopted once it reaches the clinical environment.
For Health IT companies, that means frontline engagement should begin before the roadmap is finalized—not after the product is built. Vendors that involve clinicians early, validate the problem, test workflow fit, and remain open to iteration are more likely to avoid expensive development around problems that providers either do not prioritize or cannot operationalize. Hiyam makes that point explicitly: companies can spend significant time and money solving something that the health system may not view as a meaningful problem at all.Questions This Episode Answers
Why do Health IT products fail even when the underlying technology is good?
Because implementation depends on workflow. A product may solve a legitimate problem technically but still fail if it does not fit the realities of how nurses and other frontline clinicians actually deliver care. Hiyam specifically notes that great ideas can fail at implementation when vendors do not understand workflow.
When should nurses and frontline clinicians become involved in product development?
As early as possible. Their input can validate whether the problem is real, whether the proposed solution fits day-to-day care delivery, and what needs to change before the product roadmap is finalized. Hiyam’s advice to founders is simple: involve nurses early.
What does a good early conversation between a vendor and a health system look like?
It starts with alignment around the problem rather than a product pitch. The strongest conversations involve exchanging ideas, validating the need, and determining whether the vendor and provider can work together to develop or refine a solution.
What tells a provider that a Health IT vendor has done its homework?
The vendor can clearly explain the problem it is solving, demonstrate that frontline users were involved in validating the workflow, and show a thoughtful development process rather than leading with marketing claims.
Why can co-development be valuable for Health IT companies?
Co-development gives vendors access to clinicians, subject-matter experts, workflows, and real-world feedback throughout development. It allows the company to iterate with the people who will actually use the technology instead of revealing a finished product after key design decisions have already been made.
How should a Health IT company approach a health-system innovation center or nursing innovation program?
Lead with the problem you are trying to solve and how you want to collaborate. Avoid opening with a polished marketing presentation. Hiyam’s guidance is to reach out, state the problem clearly, and focus on the opportunity to work together.
What signals that a successful pilot may be ready to scale?
Strong frontline enthusiasm is one positive signal, but technology must also survive the realities and complexity of the hospital environment. Even solutions that appear excellent in theory can fail once implemented, which is why health systems often move through a stepwise evaluation process before expanding.
What is the most important workflow question a founder should ask before finalizing the roadmap?
Ask the people who will use the product whether it fits into their day-to-day workflow—and how they see it fitting. That question can expose practical barriers that may not be visible from outside the clinical environment.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode
- Why frontline nurses are essential to Health IT innovation
- How Mass General identifies and prioritizes real-world care delivery problems
- What vendors often misunderstand about nursing workflow and implementation
- Why co-development helps companies validate problems before building solutions
- How pilots should account for governance, legal, IT, integration, and adoption realities
- Why involving nurses early can determine whether a product is embraced, adopted, and scaled
David’s GTM Takeaways for Health IT Vendors
About the Guest
Hiyam Nadel leads frontline innovation efforts at Mass General, helping clinicians turn real-world care delivery problems into practical solutions that can be tested, developed, and scaled.
Her work focuses on giving frontline nurses and care teams a formal pathway to surface pain points, shape ideas, validate workflows, and participate directly in innovation. In this conversation, she brings a practical health system perspective on what vendors need to understand if they want their products to be embraced by nurses, adopted into workflow, and scaled in a way that actually improves patient care.Transcript
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