The Power of Supporters: New Paper Focuses On How External Experts Help Interdisciplinary Innovation Teams in Healthcare

Healthcare organizations are expected to champion innovative ways to improve patients’ quality of care and staff members’ quality of work, while maintaining financial viability in the face of resource and team member shortages. Perhaps the best way to do so is with a helping hand. 

Patricia Satterstrom, assistant professor of management at NYU Wagner conducted a 24-month ethnographic study of the support provided to six frontline-led innovation teams. The subsequent paper, “The Dynamic and Multisource Nature of Support for Frontline-Led Innovation Teams” published in Medical Care Research & Review and named one of Academy of Management’s 2025 best health care management papers, offers a framework for dynamic and multisource support, challenging the more traditional “one-size-fits-all” approach support.

“When we think about how teams work together, their challenges, and their successes, we generally focus on direct team members,” said Satterstrom. “But a team’s success is dependent on more than just their members. It is influenced by the circumstances they operate within and the external support they receive. That is where our paper shines a light: On the people – the supporters – who can influence a team’s success and the types of support that are most beneficial.” 

Satterstrom, along with co-authors Olivia Jung of University of California, Los Angeles, Sara Singer of Stanford University, Fletcher Dementyev of Columbia University, and Maura Danehey of New York University, analyzed 86 interviews with 35 team members and 17 supporters, identifying how supporters can help teams overcome having limited innovation experience, relationships, or contextual awareness. This includes categorizing six sets of support practices and highlighting the value of recognizing and adapting to a team’s specific needs. 

In the past two years, Satterstrom has published six papers about frontline staff and patient voice and how to move their ideas toward implementation. 

“Frontline workers, especially those in healthcare, are strategically positioned to identify improvements that can benefit patients and staff. However, they are simultaneously shouldering many responsibilities and the expectation their time will be majority billable or patient-facing. Having external experts – like coaches, student fellows, and external funders – who interact with the team, identify their knowledge and resource gaps, and help find ways to fill the gaps goes a long way toward the team having tools to advance innovative ideas,” said Satterstrom. 

The Academy of Management’s health care management division named Satterstrom’s work the “Best Theory to Practice” paper of 2025. The award recognizes literature that translates academic research into relevant administrative or management applications. Satterstrom and her team were celebrated in July at the Academy of Management’s annual conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

To learn more about Satterstrom’s work, please reference her NYU faculty profile.