2023 ANA Innovation Award Winners: Improving Health Care Delivery to Be More Practical, Comfortable, and Patient-Centered

SILVER SPRING, MD – Today, the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the American Nurses Foundation (the Foundation) announced the winners of the 2023 ANA Innovation Awards sponsored by Stryker, a leading global medical technology company. The ANA Innovation Awards highlight, recognize, and celebrate exemplary nurse innovators who improve patient safety and health outcomes.

Winners of the Nurse-led Team Award:  

Roxanne McMurray, DNP, APRN, CRNA and the McMurray Team: Steve Fischer, Co-Founder and President, Pete Anderson, Co-Founder and Financial Director, Brian McMurray, Co-Founder and Sales and Marketing Distribution Director, Ryan Artale, Partner and Product Development and Quality, and Jana Stender, Marketing and Communications Consultant

Roxanne McMurray, a nurse anesthetist, leads the team that developed the Distal Pharyngeal Airway (DPA), called the McMurray Enhanced Airway, which is a breathing tool a breathing tool that stents open throat tissue to maintain adequate ventilation for surgery or other medical procedures. McMurray and her team saw a gap in available and effective airway management tools for populations who suffered from breathing complications, which led to the creation of DPA. This tool is the first-of-its-kind and designed to keep patients breathing who are susceptible to upper airway obstruction during sedation or unconsciousness, which is a common occurrence with potentially serious outcomes.

Studies have shown that the average health care patient is more likely to be older, overweight, and more susceptible to sleep apnea. These are all risk factors for breathing complications and given that these groups are more likely to undergo outpatient surgeries that require deep sedation, there was a significant need for a solution. The DPA was created to address this problem in a way that is both comfortable and safe for patients and health care providers.

 Winner of the Individual Nurse Award:

Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, FAMIA, FNAP

Robin Austin is the nurse and creative mind behind “MyStrengths + MyHealth” (MSMH). It’s an app that provides comprehensive, individual health assessments that’s beneficial for families and communities. The app is designed to identify social determinants of health and to enable personal health tracking and public health research. Users can self-report their health data in the categories of strengths, challenges, and needs within 4 domains: My Living, My Mind and Network, My Body, and My Self-care. The MSMH app uses health care professional terminology that has been translated into easy to understand, reader-friendly content. It seeks to improve the health of individuals by giving the power back to the patients to share their own whole-person health data that includes social and behavioral determinants of health. The app is currently being implemented oversees and is increasing in popularity with usage by public health nurses and older adults in the community.

“The 2023 ANA Innovation Award winners have built clinical solutions for complex health care challenges. Roxanne and Robin advanced care and the resources being delivered, while simultaneously improving health quality for their patients and communities,” said ANA Vice President of Nursing Innovation, Oriana Beaudet, DNP, RN, PHN. “The winners addressed emerging care needs, first through a new nurse-led health mobile app that facilitates convenience for both nurses and patients, and the second is a medical device implemented by emergency medical services and surgical teams. Advancing nurse-led solutions that create sustainable cost-effective solutions across health care is good business, driven by purpose and mission. Nurses advance health through their work as clinicians, scientists, entrepreneurs, researchers, product designers, policy leaders, in advanced practice, as community organizers, and by providing direct care across our country in hospitals, long term care, hospice, ambulatory settings, schools, and numerous public health settings. It’s time the innovative work of nurses is recognized.”

“Nurse-led innovation is critical to the advancement of health care, and that is why we are proud to partner with ANA and the Foundation as a sponsor of the ANA Innovation Awards,” said Stryker’s Vice President and General Manager, Jessica Mathieson. “This year’s award winners epitomize nursing excellence, and we are excited to see how they continue to positively impact the profession and help improve patient outcomes.”

The 2023 individual nurse and nurse-led team award recipients, will receive monetary prizes of $25,000 and $50,000, respectively. These funds support translational research, development, prototyping, production, testing, and the implementation of these innovations. The award winners will have one year to further develop their innovation and will share their outcomes and findings in 2024.

Watch the ANA Innovation Awards ceremony and meet the 2023 winners in the new webinar, “Are You a Nurse Influencer? Utilize Innovation to Drive Your Professional Influence” (Free for ANA Members). You can also learn more about how ANA is supporting nurse-led innovation by visiting the ANA Innovation website, where you will find a list of resources, upcoming events, and nurse-led innovation stories.

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About the ANA Enterprise
The ANA Enterprise is the organizing platform of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and the American Nurses Foundation. The ANA Enterprise leverages the combined strength of each to drive excellence in practice and ensure nurses’ voice and vision are recognized by policy leaders, industry influencers and employers. From professional development and advocacy, credentialing and grants, and products and services, the ANA Enterprise is the leading resource for nurses to arm themselves with the tools, information, and network they need to excel in their individual practices. In helping individual nurses succeed—across all practices and specialties, and at each stage of their careers—the ANA Enterprise is lighting the way for the entire profession to succeed.

About Stryker
Stryker is one of the world’s leading medical technology companies and, together with its customers, is driven to make healthcare better. The company offers innovative products and services in Medical and Surgical, Neurotechnology, Orthopedics and Spine that help improve patient and hospital outcomes. More information is available at www.stryker.com.